The quotations of

W. B. Yeats

Irish poet and playwright

1865–1939

15 quotes, most often on Love, Youth and Life & Death.

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world
The Second Coming (1920)In context
- Change
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
The Second Coming (1920)In context
- Character
- Good & Evil
The darkness drops again but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
The Second Coming (1920)In context
- Good & Evil
- Religion
I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honey bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.
The Lake Isle of Innisfree (1890)In context
- Nature
How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true;
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face.
When You Are Old (1892)In context
- Age
- Love
That is no country for old men.
Sailing to Byzantium (1927)In context
- Age
I know that I shall meet my fate
Somewhere among the clouds above;
Those that I fight I do not hate
Those that I guard I do not love
An Irish Airman Foresees His Death (1919)In context
- Life & Death
- War & Peace
All changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.
Easter, 1916 (1920)In context
- Beauty
- Change
Too long a sacrifice
Can make a stone of the heart.
Easter, 1916 (1920)In context
- Emotion
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven (1899)In context
- Love
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.
The Stolen Child (1886)In context
- Children
O body swayed to music, O brightening glance,
How can we know the dancer from the dance?
Among School Children (1927)In context
- Art
- Dancing
She bid me take life easy, as the grass grows on the weirs;
But I was young and foolish, and now am full of tears.
Down by the Salley Gardens (1889)In context
- Advice
- Youth
A lonely impulse of delight
Drove to this tumult in the clouds;
I balanced all, brought all to mind,
The years to come seemed waste of breath,
A waste of breath the years behind
In balance with this life, this death.
An Irish Airman Foresees His Death (1919)In context
- Life & Death
She bid me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree;
But I, being young and foolish, with her would not agree.
Down by the Salley Gardens (1889)In context
- Love
- Youth

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