“All changed, changed utterly: A terrible beauty is born.”

— William Butler Yeats, Michael Robartes and the Dancer, 1921; "Easter, 1916"

About William Butler Yeats

1865 – 1939

Irish poet and Nobel laureate in Literature (1923).

“An aged man is but a paltry thing, a tattered coat upon a stick, unless soul clap its hands and sing.”

“In dreams begin responsibilities.”

“Who dreamed that beauty passes like a dream?”

“Great is the art of beginning, but greater the art is of ending.”

“Talk not so much, then, young artist, of the great old masters.”

“Man is created free, and is free, / Though he be born in chains.”

“Music's golden tongue Flatter'd to tears this aged man and poor.”

“Only out of stir and change is born new salvation.”

“Poetry (like a grand personality) is a growth of many generations—many rare combinations.”