William Butler Yeats

All empty souls tend to extreme opinion.

— William Butler Yeats

A statesman is an easy man He tells his lies by rote A journalist makes up his lies And takes you by the throat So stay at home and drink your beer And let the neighbors vote.

— William Butler Yeats

Be secret and exult Because of all things known That is most difficult.

— William Butler Yeats

Books are but waste paper unless we spend in action the wisdom we get from thought - asleep. When we are weary of the living, we may repair to the dead, who have nothing of peevishness, pride, or design in their conversation.

— William Butler Yeats

But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

— William Butler Yeats

Come away, O human child: To the waters and the wild with a fairy, hand in hand, For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.

— William Butler Yeats

Designs in connection with postage stamps and coinage may be described, I think, as the silent ambassadors on national taste.

— William Butler Yeats

Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot but make it hot by striking.

— William Butler Yeats

Education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire.

— William Butler Yeats

Florence Far once said to me "If we could say to ourselves with sincerity 'this passing moment is as good as any I shall ever know' we could die upon the instant and be united with God."

— William Butler Yeats