William Butler Yeats Quotes

In the march towards Truth, anger, selfishness, hatred, etc., naturally give way, for otherwise Truth would be impossible to attain. A man who is swayed by passions may have good enough intentions, may be truthful in word, but he will never find the Truth.

Most men know what they hate, few what they love.

When a man is a prey to his emotions, he is not his own master, but lies at the mercy of fortune: so much so, that he is often compelled, while seeing that which is better for him, to follow that which is worse.

Instead of hating the people you think are war-makers, hate the appetites and disorder in your own soul, which are the causes of war. If you love peace, then hate injustice, hate tyranny, hate greed - but hate these things in yourself, not in another.

Character isn't inherited. One builds it daily by the way one thinks and acts, thought by thought, action by action. If one lets fear or hate or anger take possession of the mind, they become self-forged chains.

Love and hunger rule the world. Ergo, to rule the world, one must master love and hunger.

Passionate people invariably deny their anger, and cowards often boast their ignorance of fear.

Examine from time to time what are the dominant passions of your soul, and having ascertained this, mold your life, so that in thought, word, and deed you may as far as possible counteract them.

If you do everything as if it were the last thing you were doing in your life, and stop being aimless, stop letting your emotions override what your mind tells you, stop being hypocritical, self-centered, irritable.

Nothing is easier for passion than to overcome reason, but the greatest triumph is to conquer a man's own interests.

When a man is prey to his emotions, he is not his own master.

Love is the only human emotion that cannot be controlled.

Buddha's teaching are very simple, you don't have to break your head to understand the message. The part that I like the most from Buddha's teachings and from His Holiness, The Dalai Lama, is that the most powerful weapon is to not attack, to be able to have self-control.

I am really driven, but my drive doesn't effect the conversations I have in my head about life, and my worries and fears and insecurities.

This unusual and highly successful species spends a great deal of time examining his higher motives and an equal amount of time ignoring his fundamental ones.

Our happiness depends on wisdom all the way.

He submits to be seen through a microscope, who suffers himself to be caught in a fit of passion.

I work on myself daily to be a better person. When I react in a negative way to somebody, I sit back and think about why I did it, so I'm always working on myself, and my music is the same.

We are never like angels till our passion dies.

Some people carry their hearts in their heads; very many carry their heads in their hearts. The difficulty is to keep them apart, yet both actively working together.

If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins.

If some things don't make you lose your sense of reason, then you have none to lose.

I'm competitive, and I love to create challenges for myself. Maybe that's not always a good thing. It can make life complicated.

Happiness is dependent on self-discipline. We are the biggest obstacles to our own happiness. It is much easier to do battle with society and with others than to fight our own nature.