Quotations and Literature Forum

The butterfly’s attractiveness derives not only from colors and symmetry: deeper motives contribute to it. We would not think them so beautiful if they did not fly, or if they flew straight and briskly like bees, or if they stung, or above all if they did not enact the perturbing mystery of metamorphosis: the latter assumes in our eyes the value of a badly decoded message, a symbol, a sign.
-Primo Levi (1919–1987), Italian chemist, author. “Butterflies,” Other People’s Trades (1985, trans. 1989).

Wow. That's a great quote. Here's another on a similar theme....

Once upon a time, I, Chuang Chou, dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly, unaware that I was Chou. Soon I awaked, and there I was, veritably myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man. Between a man and a butterfly there is necessarily a distinction. The transition is called the transformation of material things.
~Chuang Tzu (c. 4th century BC), Chinese Philosopher, On Leveling All Things

BUTTERFLY'S DREAM
Otagaki Rengetsu (1791-1875)
Fluttering about sleepily
in a field of
dew-kissed flowers--
could it be the little butterfly
of Chuang-t'zu's dream?
http://www.womensearlyart.net/rags/b/bu ... dream.html