72 quotes
It matters not the name, the land; my joy in all the gods abides:
Even in the cricket in the grass some dimness of me smiles and hides.
We may fight against what is wrong, but if we allow ourselves to hate, that is to insure our spiritual defeat and our likeness to what we hate.
In ancient shadows and twilights
Where childhood had strayed,
The world’s great sorrows were born
And its heroes were made.
In the lost boyhood of Judas
Christ was betrayed.
Here in these shades the Ancient knows itself, the Soul,
And out of slumber waking starts unto the goal.
By Still Waters (1906)
Now the quietude of earth
Nestles deep my heart within;
Friendships new and strange have birth
Since I left the city's din.
The Nuts of Knowledge (1903)
Not unremembering we pass our exile from the starry ways:
One timeless hour in time we caught from the long night of endless days.
The Nuts of Knowledge (1903)
Let thy young wanderer dream on:
Call him not home.
A door opens, a breath a voice
From the ancient room,
Speaks to him now. Be it dark or bright
He is knit with his doom.
Who would think this quiet breather
From the world had taken flight?
Yet within the form we see there
Wakes the golden King to-night.
By Still Waters (1906)
Life cannot utter words more great
Than life may meet by sacrifice,
High words were equaled by high fate,
You paid the price. You paid the price.
To the Memory of Some I knew Who are Dead and Who Loved Ireland (1917)
After the spiritual powers, there is no thing in the world more unconquerable than the spirit of nationality. … The spirit of nationality in Ireland will persist even though the mightiest of material powers be its neighbor.
The Economics of Ireland and the Policy of the British Government (1921)
Only in clouds and dreams I felt those souls
In the abyss, each fire hid in its clod,
From which in clouds and dreams the spirit rolls
Into the vast of God.
By Still Waters (1906)
How shallow is this mere that gleams!
Its depth of blue is from the skies;
And from a distant sun the dreams
And lovely light within your eyes.
By Still Waters (1906)
Cry aloud to heaven for new souls.
Open letter to the Masters of Dublin (1913)
I remember once quarreling with Yeats who was walking around the room with a sword in one hand muttering spells to ward off evil spirits, and I noticed that every time he passed a plate of plums he put down his unoccupied hand and took a plum and I said, "Yeats, you cannot evoke great spirits and eat plums at the same time."
Across My Path (1952)
In the fire of love we live, or pass by many ways,
By unnumbered ways of dream to death.
The Hermit
The Nuts of Knowledge (1903)
Though the dream of love may tire,
In the ages long agone
There were ruby hearts of fire —
Ah, the daughters of the dawn!
The Nuts of Knowledge (1903)
Hush, not a whisper! Let your heart alone go dreaming.
Dream unto dream may pass: deep in the heart alone
Murmurs the Mighty One his solemn undertone.
The Nuts of Knowledge (1903)
Where we sat at dawn together, while the star-rich heavens shifted,
We were weaving dreams in silence, suddenly the veil was lifted.
The Nuts of Knowledge (1903)
We are desert leagues apart;
Time is misty ages now
Since the warmth of heart to heart
Chased the shadows from my brow.
The Nuts of Knowledge (1903)
He mingled with the multitude. I saw their brows were crowned and bright,
A light around the shadowy heads, a shadow round the head of light.
By Still Waters (1906)