Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Yeats admits he once judged an enemy harshly but recognizes they changed during a revolutionary event that birthed something terrible yet beautiful.
In plain terms
I thought this man was bad but he changed during a big event that was painful but also important.
What can you take from it?
Change can bring both terror and beauty.

Where it applies

  • analyzing historical events
  • reconciling with enemies
  • discussing politics

Putting it to work

  • political analysis
  • conflict resolution
  • historical writing

Questions to consider

  • Can beauty justify terrible costs?
  • How do you judge those who change?

Another view

It justifies violence by labeling it beautiful.

More from William Butler Yeats

  1. All changed, changed utterly: A terrible beauty is born.

    Permalink to quote #87
  2. Hearts with one purpose alone Through summer and winter, seem Enchanted to a stone To trouble the living stream.

    Permalink to quote #89
  3. I have met them at close of day Coming with vivid faces From counter or desk among grey Eighteenth-century houses. I have passed with a nod of the head Or poli…

    Permalink to quote #86

Related quotes

  1. Now let me be clear: I suffer no illusions about Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal man. A ruthless man. A man who butchers his own people to secure his own power.…

    Barack ObamaBarack Obama quote #2
  2. The struggle against war, properly understood and executed, presupposes the uncompromising hostility of the proletariat and its organizations, always and every…

    Leon TrotskyLeon Trotsky quote #3
  3. Roger Williams... successfully vindicated the right of private judgement in matters of conscience, and effected a moral and political revolution in all governm…

    Roger WilliamsRoger Williams quote #28