Hearts with one purpose alone Through summer and winter, seem Enchanted to a stone To trouble the living stream.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- People focused on a single purpose can become as rigid as stone, disrupting the flow of life.
- In plain terms
- Hearts fixed on one goal look like stones that block the stream of living.
- What can you take from it?
- Single-mindedness can become an obstacle to life's natural flow.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- When does purpose hurt?
- How do you keep life flowing?
Another view
Purposeful focus is often necessary for achievement and not always harmful.
More from William Butler Yeats
This other man I had dreamed A drunken, vain-glorious lout. He had done most bitter wrong To some who are near my heart, Yet I number him in the song; He, too,…
Permalink to quote #88 Minute by minute they live: The stone's in the midst of all.
Permalink to quote #90 All changed, changed utterly: A terrible beauty is born.
Permalink to quote #87
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