Our curated butterfly quotes explore what authors, speakers, and personalities have said about these strikingly beautiful creatures.
Metamorphosis in biology is a process where some animals undergo a noticeable change in their body structure and behavior after birth or after they have hatched. Moreover, beetles, bees, scorpions, jellyfish, and many more animals and, most famously, butterflies experience a complete metamorphosis (holometabolism), ultimately changing them into something new. On the other hand, termites, grasshoppers, and other insects have an incomplete one, where they go through fewer stages.
Humans experience transformations as well though not quite literally. Whether painful or pleasant, we go through different life stages and diverse versions of ourselves. For these reasons and more, the butterfly has become synonymous with the beauty of insect life and transformation, because no matter what obstacles it endures, it will always become a beautiful being.
Read on for our hand-picked selection of quotes about butterflies related to transformation, and that celebrate their beauty.
Related: Read more about the insect world in our compilation of cool bug facts, bug facts, ladybug facts, and our rundown of different types of moths and different types of bees.
Quick links to our selection of butterfly quotes:
We have associated butterflies with aspects of hope and transformation for centuries because of their intriguing change from caterpillar to beautiful butterfly and our attraction to their colorful and complicated wing patterns.
According to a recent study, a butterfly wing's physical intricacies are the work of only two genes. The WntA gene is in charge of the patterns4, while the Optix gene is responsible for pigmentation and iridescence1.
Let's start this collection of butterfly quotes with the colorful symbolism we associate with these enchanting animals.
"Don't be afraid. Change is such a beautiful thing', said the Butterfly."
"Don't waste your time chasing butterflies. Mend your garden, and the butterflies will come."
"Butterflies are not called butterflies overnight. They have to undergo tons of changes in order to acquire that name."
"Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee."
"The butterfly is a flying flower. The flower is a tethered butterfly."
"Beautiful and graceful, varied and enchanting, small but approachable, butterflies lead you to the sunny side of life. And everyone deserves a little sunshine."
"I must endure the presence of a few caterpillars if I wish to become acquainted with the butterflies."
"Perhaps the butterfly is proof that you can go through a great deal of darkness yet still become something beautiful."
Everyone is like a butterfly, they start out ugly and awkward and then morph into beautiful graceful butterflies that everyone loves.
~ Drew Barrymore
Many transformations can prove challenging, and the transition from caterpillar to butterfly is no exception. Do you know how they go through excruciating pain just to become a butterfly?
The life stage of a butterfly starts from an egg hatching into a caterpillar which feeds and exponentially grows until it molts five to seven times. Therefore, this nutrient-gathering phase supports the next one5. In the chrysalis stage, the caterpillar disintegrates and experiences cell death6. And, floating in the mushy goo, imaginal discs are present, which will transform into the butterfly we know.
Our challenges are part of our life. So when reading the following butterfly quotes, remind yourself that you can overcome your challenges. You can do it
"Like a butterfly stuck in a chrysalis, waiting for the perfect moment, I was waiting for the day I could burst forth and fly away and find my home."
"How does one become a butterfly?' she asked pensively. 'You must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar.' 'You mean to die?' asked Yellow, remembering the three who fell out of the sky. 'Yes and No,' he answered. 'What looks like you will die, but what's really you will still live.'"
"As with the butterfly, adversity is necessary to build character in people."
"When she transformed into a butterfly, the caterpillars spoke not of her beauty, but of her weirdness. They wanted her to change back into what she always had been. But she had wings."
"There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly."
Self-realization is a strange term. You don't actually realize yourself. If anything, you go away. The caterpillar enters the cocoon of meditation: A butterfly emerges, metamorphosis.
~ Frederick Lindemann
We associate the image of a fragile butterfly slowly coming out of its chrysalis with new beginnings. When the butterfly is fully-developed, it is ready to emerge out of its now-softened chrysalis. This act is called eclosing or eclosion.
When butterflies emerge from the chrysalis, their wings are damp and soft. So first, they fold their wings against their body. Then they lie down and wait between 30 minutes and two hours for their wings to dry. The transformation is complete!
Like the butterfly seeking nectars from beautiful flowers, embrace your new beginnings after reading the following inspirational butterfly quotes. Also, check out our flower quotes for more from our natural environment.
"Death consists, indeed, in a repeated process of unrobing, or unsheathing. The immortal part of man shakes off from itself, one after the other, its outer casings, and - as the snake from its skin, the butterfly from its chrysalis - emerges from one after another, passing into a higher state of consciousness."
"Metamorphosis has always been the greatest symbol of change for poets and artists. Imagine that you could be a caterpillar one moment and a butterfly the next."
"What the caterpillar calls the end of the world the master calls a butterfly."
"When a caterpillar bursts from its cocoon and discovers it has wings, it does not sit idly, hoping to one day turn back. It flies."
"Adding wings to caterpillars does not create butterflies. It creates awkward and dysfunctional caterpillars. Butterflies are created through transformation."
Even as we enter new chapters in life, we remember the past that made us who we are. In correlation to our featured animal, have you ever thought if butterflies remembered the changes they went through as caterpillars?
Caterpillars and butterflies are distinguishable by their physical form, diet, movement, and senses. But a study reveals that despite the transformation, butterflies and moths retain some memories of when it was still a caterpillar3. The study could also tell how females decide which plant to lay an egg on as they recall the specific plant they ate as a caterpillar.
While reading the following butterfly quotes, remember your experience and leverage it into your long-lasting commitment to improving.
"A caterpillar, after its deep slumber, ‘wakes up to reality' to realize, that truth is not always bitter after all!"
"The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough."
"We can learn a lesson from the butterfly beginning it's life crawling along the ground, then spinning a cocoon, patiently waiting until the day it will fly."
"A butterfly symbolized acceptance of each new phase in life. To keep faith as everything around you changed."
"In mythology throughout the world, the butterfly represents the soul and its journey in this life and the next."
The complete metamorphosis of butterflies occurs in four stages. The average duration for each phase is 4 to 10 days for eggs, 3 to 4 weeks for caterpillars, 10 to 20 days for pupas, and 3 to 4 weeks for adult butterflies. So, as you can see, a butterfly spends a big chunk of its short life span transforming.
Even if they live for only a few days, these enchanting creatures still emerge from their chrysalises for their short time as beautiful butterflies. So like a butterfly, let's start living in the moment and be more hopeful in life after checking out the quotes below.
"Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you."
"When I was a girl I would look out my bedroom window at the caterpillars; I envied them so much. No matter what they were before, no matter what happened to them, they could just hide away and turn into these beautiful creatures that could fly away completely untouched."
"Forgetting… is a beautiful thing. When you forget, you remake yourself… For a caterpillar to become a butterfly, it must forget it was a caterpillar at all. Then it will be as if the caterpillar never was & there was only ever a butterfly."
"The butterfly does not look back upon its caterpillar self, either fondly or wistfully; it simply flies on."
Graceful butterflies play various essential roles in nature. First, their delicate build makes them perfect indicators of a healthy environment. Due to their short life cycle, they can quickly react to environmental changes. And like bees, they help in pollination. Finally, they feed many insectivores in the food chain. These tiny flying creatures do so much for the world!
Aside from the aesthetic values butterflies give us, let us discover more about their nature with the following butterfly quotes.
"Butterflies may be better indicators of the health of our environment than birds."
"The butterflies…What an educated sense of beauty they have. They seem only an ornament to society, and yet, if they were gone, how substantial would be their loss."
"Never touch a butterfly's wing with your finger."
"She is like a butterfly, Beautiful to look at but hard to catch."
"Be like a butterfly and a flower—beautiful and sought after, yet unassuming and gentle."
"The typical nature photograph shows a butterfly on a pretty flower. The conservation photograph shows the same thing, but with a bulldozer coming at it in the background."
Butterflies embody various positive representations in arts and literature from the eastern to the western hemisphere. The celebrated Van Gogh created a series of butterfly paintings during the late 1800s and took inspiration from the creature's transformation, which he believed humans, too, are capable of.
In China, the first Chinese character in the word butterfly sounds like the character for good fortune. On the other side of the globe, the Native Americans have a legend wherein they believe their secret wish will come true if they capture a butterfly and whisper the wish to it.
Uncover more of these beliefs and symbolism after reading the butterfly quotes below.
"This magnificent butterfly finds a little heap of dirt and sits still on it; but man will never on his heap of mud keep still."
"With the rose the butterfly's deep in love, A thousand times hovering round; But round himself, all tender like gold, The sun's sweet ray is hovering found."
"I dreamed I was a butterfly, flitting around in the sky; then I awoke. Now I wonder: Am I a man who dreamt of being a butterfly, or am I a butterfly dreaming that I am a man?"
"Butterflies, they are like dream flowers, childhood dreams, which have broken loose from their stalks and escaped into the sunshine."
"I embrace emerging experience. I participate in discovery. I am a butterfly. I am not a butterfly collector. I want the experience of the butterfly."
Although less efficient than bees, butterflies perch on various flowers throughout the day. Visiting one flower to the other is perhaps the origin of the 'social butterfly,' which we use to describe someone outgoing. According to the US Forest Service, butterflies like flowers that provide ample landing area, are brightly colored, and with sufficient nectar.
Research more about the origins of other metaphors after checking out the next set of butterfly quotes.
"I wasn't a social butterfly at all."
"Social entrepreneurship is like a butterfly, sucking honey from a flower, but the flower won't die. They're helping the flower to make pollination."
"I have four or five ideas that just keep floating around, and I want to kind of just let one, like a beautiful butterfly, let it land somewhere."
"You want to have butterflies in your stomach, because if you don't, if you walk out onstage complacent, that's not a good thing."
"Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?"
"I am a believer of butterfly effect. A small positive vibration can change the entire cosmos."
"It has been said that something as small as the flutter of a butterfly's wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world."
The fame of the magnificent butterfly across locations, generations, and cultures is undeniable. But despite that, not all of us look into the severe effects of our activities on their population.
For instance, a study has revealed that the number of butterflies plunged over the last 40 years2. Furthermore, they concluded that climate change - particularly the warmer months during autumn - plays a significant role in the decline.
As we read these butterfly quotes from famous personalities, may we also put into light the conservation of these delicate critters.
"‘Just living isn't enough,’ said the butterfly, ‘one must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower.’"
"We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty."
"His talent was as natural as the pattern that was made by the dust on a butterfly's wings. At one time he understood it no more than the butterfly did and he did not know when it was brushed or marred."
"Love is like a butterfly, a rare and gentle thing."
"The butterfly flits from bloom to bloom, as not to miss one fragrant plume. In her sight exists no garden finale, only paradise of flowered hill and valley."
An adult butterfly's average lifespan depends on the species. On average, adult butterflies can live for three to four weeks. The smallest butterfly species, American Copper, has a lifespan of about two weeks. However, some can live for six weeks to a year if they are overwintering or migratory butterflies.
For instance, the deep orange and black monarch butterflies live for five weeks. But the ones born at the end of summer can live for up to eight months. They use their extended lifespan to migrate to Central and South America, remaining until the following spring.
Although butterflies' lifespans are limited, let us continue to appreciate their beauty by posting these butterfly captions on social media.
"You do not just wake up and become the butterfly. Growth is a process."
"Fighting has taught me that the caterpillar takes a while to turn into a majestic butterfly."
"And when all the wars are over, a butterfly will still be beautiful."
"Butterflies are self propelled flowers."
"Beautiful and graceful, butterflies lift our spirits with their loveliness and lyric flight."
"Beauty is where the beheld butterfly disappears from sight."
"Butterflies are nature's angels. They remind us what a gift it is to be alive."
"Literature and butterflies are the two sweetest passions known to man."
Just when the caterpillar thought her life was over, she began to fly.
~ Unknown
The caterpillar does all the work, but the butterfly gets all the publicity.
~ George Carlin
| 1 | Zhang, L., Mazo-Vargas, A., & Reed, R. D. (2017). Single master regulatory gene coordinates the evolution and development of butterfly color and iridescence. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 114(40), 10707–10712. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1709058114 |
| 2 | Forister, M. L., Halsch, C. A., Nice, C. C., Fordyce, J. A., Dilts, T. E., Oliver, J. C., Prudic, K. L., Shapiro, A. M., Wilson, J. K., & Glassberg, J. (2021). Fewer butterflies seen by community scientists across the warming and drying landscapes of the American West. Science (New York, N.Y.), 371(6533), 1042–1045. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abe5585 |
| 3 | Blackiston, D. J., Silva Casey, E., & Weiss, M. R. (2008). Retention of memory through metamorphosis: can a moth remember what it learned as a caterpillar?. PloS one, 3(3), e1736. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0001736 |
| 4 | Mazo-Vargas, A., Concha, C., Livraghi, L., Massardo, D., Wallbank, R., Zhang, L., Papador, J. D., Martinez-Najera, D., Jiggins, C. D., Kronforst, M. R., Breuker, C. J., Reed, R. D., Patel, N. H., McMillan, W. O., & Martin, A. (2017). Macroevolutionary shifts of WntA function potentiate butterfly wing-pattern diversity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 114(40), 10701–10706. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1708149114 |
| 5 | Butterflies of Micronesia (pdf), Ilse H. Schreiner and Donald M. Nafus, 1997, Agricultural Experiment Station, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, University of Guam, Mangilao, Guam 96923 |
| 6 | Tettamanti, G., & Casartelli, M. (2019). Cell death during complete metamorphosis. Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 374(1783), 20190065. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2019.0065 |
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