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About this quote

What does it mean?
An Irish sense of tragedy helps one endure periods of joy.
In plain terms
Knowing tragedy helps you handle joy.
What can you take from it?
Sadness helps you handle happiness.

Where it applies

  • coping mechanism
  • cultural analysis
  • personal resilience

Putting it to work

  • acknowledge sadness
  • prepare for joy
  • use culture as support

Questions to consider

  • Does sadness support joy?
  • Is this a cultural trait?

Another view

Not everyone finds tragedy sustaining.

More from William Butler Yeats

  1. No marble, no conventional phrase; On limestone quarried near the spot By his command these words are cut: Cast a cold eye On life, on death. Horseman, pass by!

    Permalink to quote #170
  2. Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.

    Permalink to quote #172
  3. Under bare Ben Bulben's head In Drumcliff churchyard Yeats is laid.

    Permalink to quote #169

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