Quote #126

Whether they knew or not, Goldsmith and Burke, Swift and the Bishop of Cloyne All hated Whiggery; but what is Whiggery? A levelling, rancorous, rational sort of mind That never looked out of the eye of a saint Or out of drunkard's eye.

More from William Butler Yeats

  1. Only God, my dear, Could love you for yourself alone And not your yellow hair.
  2. Whatever flames upon the night Man's own resinous heart has fed.
  3. Swift has sailed into his rest; Savage indignation there Cannot lacerate his breast. Imitate him if you dare, World-besotted traveller; he …
  4. Everything that man esteems Endures a moment or a day. Love's pleasure drives his love away, The painter's brush consumes his dreams.
  5. The intellect of man is forced to choose Perfection of the life, or of the work, And if it take the second must refuse A heavenly mansion, …
  6. Odour of blood when Christ was slain Made all platonic tolerance vain And vain all Doric discipline.
  7. The unpurged images of day recede; The Emperor's drunken soldiery are abed; Night resonance recedes, night walkers' song After great cathed…
  8. Mock mockers after that That would not lift a hand maybe To help good, wise or great To bar that foul storm out, for we Traffic in mockery.

All William Butler Yeats quotes