QuoteProject
I pray-for fashion's word is out And prayer comes round again- That I may seem, though I die old, A foolish, passionate man.
William Butler Yeats
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote reflects the desire to live passionately and authentically, even in old age.

In this quote, William Butler Yeats expresses a yearning to embrace life with fervor and enthusiasm, suggesting that even as one grows older, the essence of being a 'foolish, passionate man' should remain. The acknowledgment of life's cyclical nature, as highlighted by the invocation of prayer and fashion, underscores the notion that true vitality and spirit can endure beyond the confines of age, allowing one to remain vibrant and engaged with the world.

Themes

PassionLifeAgeAuthenticityVitality

In practice

Example use cases

Using this quote during a speech about embracing life's challenges at a retirement party.

More from William Butler Yeats

If a poet interprets a poem of his own he limits its suggestibility.
William Butler YeatsRead
It was my first meeting with a philosophy that confirmed my vague speculations and seemed at once logical and boundless.
William Butler YeatsRead
But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
William Butler YeatsRead
How far away the stars seem, and how far is our first kiss, and ah, how old my heart.
William Butler YeatsRead
For he would be thinking of love Till the stars had run away And the shadows eaten the moon.
William Butler YeatsRead
Love is created and preserved by intellectual analysis, for we love only that which is unique, and it belongs to contemplation, not to action, for we would not change that which we love.
William Butler YeatsRead

Similar quotes

...like a magnetic compass turning north, I always tried to head in the direction of the better, which is the direction to God. ...the directions that appeared to lead away from Christianity led me deeper into it.
Huston SmithRead
The male orientation of classical Athens was inseparable from its genius. Athens became great not despite but because of its misogyny.
Camille PagliaRead
I seal that which was not to be said in the tomb that I become.
Umberto EcoRead
I was modest--they accused me of being crafty: I became secretive. I felt deeply good and evil--nobody caressed me, everybody offended me: I became rancorous. I was gloomy--other children were merry and talkative. I felt myself superior to them--but was considered inferior: I became envious. I was ready to love the whole world--none understood me: and I learned to hate.
Mikhail LermontovRead
The genocide (in Rwanda) was a collective act. What made it possible, what made that final political crime possible, was the absence, the erasure, of seeing the other. Of knowing, of feeling, of being with the other. And when that's removed, then politics_x000D_ can become genocidal.
James OrbinskiRead
Solitude is as needful to the imagination as society is wholesome for the character.
James Russell LowellRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.