“How does one become a butterfly?" she asked.
"You must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar.”
Variant: How does one become a butterfly? They have to want to learn to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar.
Source: Hope for the Flowers
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Trina Paulus 2
American writer 1932–1963Related quotes
Statement in the 1920s as quoted in Chanel (1987) by Jean Leymari
“There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly.”
“The caterpillar does all the work, but the butterfly gets all the publicity.”
“The butterfly in a caterpillar: the eagle in an egg; the saint in a selfish human being.”
Genius
One Minute Wisdom (1989)
Context: A writer arrived at the monastery to write a book about the Master.
"People say you are a genius. Are you?" he asked.
"You might say so." said the Master, none too modestly.
"And what makes one a genius?" "The ability to recognize." "Recognize what?"
"The butterfly in a caterpillar: the eagle in an egg; the saint in a selfish human being."
“When a caterpillar changes into a butterfly it loses it's caterpillar life.”
Source: Night World, No. 1
On Peter Porter, 'Talking for Posterity' (Times Literary Supplement, May 14, 2010)
Essays and reviews
Context: [H]e could never have played the hero, because for him it was creativity itself that had the heroic status, beyond politics, beyond patriotism, beyond even personal happiness. It’s the reason why his work is like that. His poetry, so wonderful when it is really flying, isn’t trying to tell you how much he knows. It’s giving thanks for how much there is to be known.
