Butterfly Quotes - Page 10

• I am not so weak as to submit to the demands of the age when they go against my convictions. I spin a cocoon around myself; let others do the same. I shall leave it to time to show what will come of it: a brilliant butterfly or maggot.

  Caspar David Friedrich

  Age, Cocoons, Demand

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• What is the Absolute? Something that appears to us in fleeting experiences--say, through the gentle smile of a beautiful woman, or even through the warm caring smile of a person who may otherwise seem ugly and rude. In such miraculous but extremely fragile moments, another dimension transpires through our reality. As such, the Absolute is easily corroded;it slips all too easily through our fingers and must be handled as carefully as a butterfly

  Slavoj Žižek

  Beautiful, Caring, Reality

  Slavoj Žižek (2001). “The Fragile Absolute Or, Why is the Christian Legacy Worth Fighting For?”, p.128, Verso

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• Once Zhuangzi dreamt he was a butterfly...

  Zhuangzi

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• Braving obstacles and hardships is nobler than retreat to tranquility. The butterfly that hovers around the lamp until it dies is more admirable than the mole that lives in a dark tunnel.

  Khalil Gibran

  Life, Dark, Tunnels

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• No sun, no moon, no morn, no noon, No dawn, no dusk, no proper time of day, . . . . . . No road, no street, no t' other side the way, . . . . . . No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees, No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no buds.

  Thomas Hood

  Flower, Moon, Shining

  Thomas Hood, “No!”

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• The morning woods were utterly new. A strong yellow light pooled beneath the trees; my shadow appeared and vanished on the path, since a third of the trees I walked under were still bare, a third spread a luminous haze wherever they grew, and another third blocked the sun with new, whole leaves. The snakes were out - I saw a bright, smashed one on the path - and the butterflies were vaulting and furling about; the phlox was at its peak, and even the evergreens looked greener, newly created and washed.

  Annie Dillard

  Strong, Morning, Snakes

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• Butterflies may be better indicators of the health of our environment than birds.

  Roger Tory Peterson

  Health, Science, Bird

  George H. Harrison, Roger Tory Peterson (1976). “Roger Tory Peterson's Dozen Birding Hot Spots”, Simon & Schuster

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• Thousands of stars in the night sky,
  And shells on the shore together,
  Hundreds of birds that go singing by,
  Especially in sunny weather.
  Millions of dewdrops to greet the dawn,
  Thousands of leaves in the fall,
  Hundreds of butterflies on the lawn,
  But only one father, that's all.
  Happy Birthday
  To the One and Only

  John Walter Bratton

  Stars, Father, Fall

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• There's a part of every living thing that wants to become itself: the tadpole into the frog, the chrysalis into the butterfly, a damaged human being into a whole one.That is spirituality.

  Ellen Bass

  Integrity, Growth, Tadpoles

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• In the next few galactic seconds, the fate of the universe will be decided. Life - the ultimate experiment - will either explode into space, and engulf the star-clouds in a fire storm of children, trees, and butterfly wings; or Life will fail, fizzle, and gutter out, leaving the universe shrouded forever in impenetrable blankness, devoid of hope.

  Marshall Savage

  Stars, Children, Philosophical

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• April's air stirs in Willow-leaves...a butterfly Floats and balances

  Matsuo Basho

  Spring, Air, Balance

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• The Caterpillar cannot understand the butterfly

  Timothy Leary

  Drug, Caterpillars

  Timothy Leary, Robert Anton Wilson, George A. Koopman (1988). “Neuropolitique”, New Falcon Publications

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• The difference between me and a butterfly is that the butterfly looks at a flower with no purpose in mind but to sip nectar. The flower feeds its body while for me the colours and shapes and scents of flowers feed my heart. But how arrogant of me to assume that the butterfly does not feel its miniscule heart also soar for no reason other than touching and being touched by beauty!

  Densey Clyne

  Beauty, Flower, Heart

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• It used to be thought that the events that changed the world were things like big bombs, maniac politicians, huge earthquakes, or vast population movements, but it has now been realized that this is a very old-fashioned view held by people totally out of touch with modern thought. The things that really change the world, according to Chaos theory, are the tiny things. A butterfly flaps its wings in the Amazonian jungle, and subsequently a storm ravages half of Europe.

  Neil Gaiman

  Views, Europe, Earthquakes

  "Good Omens". Book by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, 1990.

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• Life is chaotic and unpredictable. If a butterfly flaps its wings in one part of the world, it could cause people at the opposite end of the globe to watch a Discovery Channel special on butterflies

  Stephen Colbert

  Discovery, Opposites, Wings

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• Oh, God. I'm in big trouble. Because I'm staring. I can't keep my eyes from ogling his chiseled triceps and biceps and every other "eps ' he has. The butterflies in my stomach have just multiplied tenfold as my wandering gaze meets his.

  Simone Elkeles

  Eye, Biceps, Trouble

  Simone Elkeles (2011). “Perfect Chemistry”, p.138, Simon and Schuster

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• Oh, gross. Your stomach is full of butterfly barf!

  Laini Taylor

  Stomach, Gross

  Laini Taylor (2011). “Daughter of Smoke and Bone: Daughter of Smoke and Bone Trilogy”, p.49, Hachette UK

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• One thought spectra are marvellous, but it is not possible to make progress there. Just as if you have the wing of a butterfly then certainly it is very regular with the colors and so on, but nobody thought one could get the basis of biology from the coloring of the wing of a butterfly.

  Niels Bohr

  Science, Color, Wings

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• Thou cannot harm a butterfly, without troubling a star.

  Madeleine L'Engle

  Stars, Harm

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• Holding Eleanor’s hand was like holding a butterfly. Or a heartbeat. Like holding something complete, and completely alive. As soon as he touched her, he wondered how he’d gone this long without doing it. He rubbed his thumb through her palm and up her fingers, and was aware of her every breath.

  Rainbow Rowell

  Hands, Long, Gone

  Rainbow Rowell (2013). “Eleanor & Park”, p.71, Macmillan

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• To Beatrice- My love flew like a butterfly Until death swooped down like a bat As the poet Emma Montana McElroy said: 'That's the end of that.

  Daniel Handler

  Bats, Montana, Poet

  "A Series of Unfortunate Events #4: The Miserable Mill". Book by Daniel Handler, www.theguardian.com. April 5, 2000.

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• The whole time I was hoping my silence would fit yours and exclamation marks would gently float across time and space so that boundaries would be crossed; the whole time I was praying you would read my eyes and understand what I was never able to understand. See, we were never about butterflies. We’ve always been about burning stars. All about us is unearthly and radiant.

  Anna Akhmatova

  Stars, Eye, Exclamation Marks

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• It's hard to know whether to laugh or to cry at the human predicament. Here we are with so much wisdom and tenderness, and—without even knowing it—we cover it over to protect ourselves from insecurity. Although we have the potential to experience the freedom of a butterfly, we mysteriously prefer the small and fearful cocoon of ego.

  Pema Chodron

  Knowing, Laughing, Ego

  Pema Chodron (2002). “The Places That Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times”, p.12, Shambhala Publications

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• Hapiness is as exclusive as a butterfly, and you must never pursue it. If you stay very still, it may come and settle on your hand. But only briefly. Savour those moments, for they will not come in your way very often.

  Ruskin Bond

  Hands, May, Way

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• Some people are as fragile as butterflies and sensitive and it’s your responsibility not to destroy them. Just because you can

  Marisha Pessl

  Responsibility, People, Sensitive

  Marisha Pessl (2006). “Special Topics in Calamity Physics”, p.201, Penguin

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