Now that my ladder's gone, I must lie down where all the ladders start In the foul rag-and-bone shop of the heart.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- When ambition fails, one must accept the flawed reality of human nature.
- In plain terms
- When dreams fail you must accept your human nature.
- What can you take from it?
- Accept human flaws when ambitions fail.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- How do you handle failure?
- What is the cost of ambition?
Another view
It assumes failure is inevitable and that all ambition ends in disappointment.
More from William Butler Yeats
Players and painted stage took all my love, And not those things that they were emblems of.
Permalink to quote #166 Irish poets, earn your trade, Sing whatever is well made, Scorn the sort now growing up All out of shape from toe to top, Their unremembering hearts and heads …
Permalink to quote #168 I have found nothing half so good As my long-planned half solitude, Where I can sit up half the night With some friend that has the wit Not to allow his looks …
Permalink to quote #165
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