FastSaying

I think it better that at times like theseWe poets keep our mouths shut, for in truthWe have no gift to set a statesman right;He's had enough of meddling who can pleaseA young girl in the indolence of her youthOr an old man upon a winter's night.

William Butler Yeats

William Butler Yeats

PoetsTruth

Related Quotes

Irish poets, learn your trade, sing whatever is well made, scorn the sort now growing up all out of shape from toe to top.
— William Butler Yeats
Growing upIrishPoets
Wine comes in at the mouth And love comes in at the eye; That's all we shall know for truth Before we grow old and die
— William Butler Yeats
LoveTruthWine
That William Blake
Who beat upon the wall
Till Truth obeyed his call.
— William Butler Yeats
DreamsPovertyTruth
Man can embody truth but he cannot know it. The intellect of man is forced to choose perfection of the life, or of the work, and if it take the second must refuse a heavenly mansion, raging in the dark.
— William Butler Yeats
ChoiceManPerfection
Supreme art is a traditional statement of certain heroic and religious truth, passed on from age to age, modified by individual genius, but never abandoned
— William Butler Yeats
AgeArtReligious