One day when I was twenty-three or twenty-four this sentence seemed to form in my head, without my willing it, much as sentences form when we are half-asleep: 'Hammer your thoughts into unity.' For days I could think of nothing else, and for years I tested all I did by that sentence.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- A phrase appeared in the author's mind to unify thoughts, becoming a lifelong guide for their work.
- In plain terms
- One sentence told me to unify my thoughts and I followed it.
- What can you take from it?
- Simple principles can guide a lifetime of work.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- What rule guides your work?
- How do you organize ideas?
Another view
It suggests ideas come fully formed rather than through effort.
More from William Butler Yeats
We make out of the quarrel with others, rhetoric, but of the quarrel with ourselves, poetry.
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Permalink to quote #11 The friends that have it I do wrong Whenever I remake a song Should know what issue is at stake, It is myself that I remake.
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