“Too long a sacrifice Can make a stone of the heart.”

— William Butler Yeats, Michael Robartes and the Dancer, 1921; "Easter, 1916"

About William Butler Yeats

1865 – 1939

Irish poet and Nobel laureate in Literature (1923).

“An aged man is but a paltry thing, a tattered coat upon a stick, unless soul clap its hands and sing.”

“In dreams begin responsibilities.”

“Who dreamed that beauty passes like a dream?”

“If music be the food of love, play on.”

“Give all to love; obey thy heart.”

“What is done out of love always takes place beyond good and evil.”

“The spiritualization of sensuality is called love.”

“There is not love of life without despair about life.”

“The opposite of an idealist is too often a man without love.”