Monday 13 June 2016

13 June: William Butler Yeats


Today is the anniversary of the birth of William Butler Yeats (1865) Irish poet and dramatist who won the 1923 Nobel Prize for Literature.


  1. Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.
  2. There are no strangers here; Only friends you haven't yet met.
  3. But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
  4. Think where man's glory most begins and ends, and say my glory was I had such friends.
  5. The creations of a great writer are little more than the moods and passions of his own heart, given surnames and Christian names, and sent to walk the earth.
  6. If suffering brings wisdom, I would wish to be less wise.
  7. I have known more men destroyed by the desire to have wife and child and to keep them in comfort than I have seen destroyed by drink and harlots.
  8. The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.
  9. Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot; but make it hot by striking.
  10. Everything exists, everything is true and the earth is just a bit of dust beneath our feet.

No comments:

Post a Comment