“Where beauty has no ebb, decay no flood, But joy is wisdom, time an endless song.”

— William Butler Yeats, The Land of Heart's Desire, 1894

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?”

“Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth, by calling imagination to the help of reason.”

“Music is the universal language of mankind—poetry their universal pastime and delight.”

“Birds' songs express joy, beauty, and purity, and evoke in us vitality and love.”

“There is no happiness in love, except at the end of an English novel.”

“Love the little trade which thou hast learned, and be content therewith.”

“Beauty is the mark God sets upon virtue.”