“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."
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Anthony de Mello 135
Indian writer 1931–1987Related quotes
“When a caterpillar changes into a butterfly it loses it's caterpillar life.”
Source: Night World, No. 1

Statement in the 1920s as quoted in Chanel (1987) by Jean Leymari
“We kill all the caterpillars, then complain there are no butterflies.”
Source: The Dead of Night

“There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly.”

Ch. 27 http://www.resologist.net/talent27.htm
Wild Talents (1932)
Context: My general expression is that all human beings who can do anything; and dogs that track unseen quarry, and homing pigeons, and bird-charming snakes, and caterpillars who transform into butterflies, are magicians. … Considering modern data, it is likely that many of the fakirs of the past, who are now known as saints, did, or to some degree did, perform the miracles that have been attributed to them. Miracles, or stunts, that were in accord with the dominant power of the period were fostered, and miracles that conflicted with, or that did not contribute to, the glory of the Church, were discouraged, or were savagely suppressed. There could be no development of mechanical, chemical, or electric miracles —
And that, in the succeeding age of Materialism — or call it the Industrial Era — there is the same state of subservience to a dominant, so that young men are trained to the glory of the job, and dream and invent in fields that are likely to interest stockholders, and are schooled into thinking that all magics, except their own industrial magics, are fakes, superstitions, or newspaper yarns.

“What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.”
Source: Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah

“The caterpillar does all the work, but the butterfly gets all the publicity.”

“What a caterpillar calls the end of the world we call a butterfly.”
Source: The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment