Writers and celebrities are often charmed by butterflies and use them to showcase their thoughts on change, freedom, happiness, and life.
Lovely motivational Butterfly Sayings
Rabindranath Tagore is a famous author in the early 1900s who won the Nobel Prize. When it comes to butterflies, he said:
“The butterfly counts not months but moments and has time enough.”
Muhammad Ali has been known not only for his professional boxing stints but also for his activism. He was also inspired by butterflies:
“Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.”
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Charles Dickens is a famous Victorian-era writer famous for writing novels like “Oliver Twist.” This is his simple, yet powerful butterfly quote:
“I only ask to be free. The butterflies are free.”
André Gide, the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, goes deeper:
“A caterpillar who seeks to know himself would never become a butterfly.”
Alice Hoffman, an American novelist and young adult and children’s writer talks about butterflies in the following manner:
“Invisible and inevitable, like a butterfly that beats its wings in one corner of the globe and with that single action changes the weather halfway across the world.”
Nathaniel Hawthorne, an American novelist, and short story writer connects butterflies with happiness:
“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.”
Inspirational Butterfly Quotes (Inspirational Quotes)
Mandy Hale is a New York Times best-selling author who wrote” The Single Woman: Life, Love, and a Dash of Sass.” She said:
“A season of loneliness and isolation is when the caterpillar gets its wings. Remember that next time you feel alone.”
Jesse Taylor is a martial artist who is known for professional mixed arts. Butterflies inspired him as well:
“Fighting has taught me that the caterpillar takes a while to turn into a majestic butterfly.”
Even Carl Sagan, an American astronomer, had something to say about butterflies:
“We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it is forever.”
Joseph Conrad, a Polish-British writer, said the following butterfly saying:
“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.”
Butterfly Quotes About Love (Love Quotes)
Henry David Thoreau, a philosopher, writer, and naturalist known for his book “Walden” says the following about butterflies:
“Happiness is like a butterfly; the more you chase it, the more it will evade you, but if you notice the other things around you, it will gently come and sit on your shoulder.”
Naya Rivera is a singer and actress widely known for her starring role in the series “Glee.” She connects butterflies with people:
“Butterflies can’t see their wings. They can’t see how truly beautiful they are, but everyone else can. People are like that as well.”
Dolly Parton, famous singer and songwriter, talks about butterflies and love:
“Love is like a butterfly, a rare and gentle thing.”
Butterfly Sayings for Her and Him
Hans Christian Anderson is a writer who is famous for his fairy tales, such as “Thumbelina,” “The Little Mermaid,” and “The Princess and the Pea.” This writer has simplistic yet deep quotes about butterflies, such as:
“Just living isn’t enough,” said the butterfly, “one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.”
Max Lucado is a best-selling author and also works as a speaker and a pastor, and connects butterflies with innocence:
“Be a child again. Flirt. Giggle. Dip your cookies in your milk. Take a nap. Say you’re sorry if you hurt someone. Chase a butterfly. Be a child again.”
Butterfly Quotes for Kids
Bruce Larkin is a bilingual author known for writing children’s books, so it’s not surprising he was focused on butterflies:
“Butterflies flutter. Butterflies fly. They put a sparkle in your eye. Watch a butterfly, and in a short while, it will give you a butterfly smile!”
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is the author of the famous book, “The Little Prince.” One of his butterfly sayings is:
“Well, I must endure the presence of a few caterpillars if I wish to become acquainted with the butterflies.”
Butterfly Quotes About Change
Drew Barrymore is an author, producer, talk show host, director, and actress known for starring in “Charlie’s Angels.” He says the following:
“Everyone you love is like a butterfly, they start out ugly and awkward and then morph into beautiful, graceful butterflies that everyone loves.”
Trina Paulus, an author who wrote the best-selling parable “Hope for the Flowers,” defines change with butterflies:
“How does one become a butterfly? You have to want to learn to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar.”
Anna Pavlova, a Russian prima ballerina, also connected butterflies with transformation:
“When a small child, I thought that success spelled happiness. I was wrong, happiness is like a butterfly which appears and delights us for one brief moment but soon flits away.”
Famous Butterfly Quotes
Tracy Morgan is an actor and a stand-up comedian known for his appearance in “Saturday Night Live. “He compares himself with a butterfly:
“And when I was angry, when I was younger, I was in a cocoon. Now I’m a beautiful, black butterfly.”
Maya Angelou is a poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist known for writing lots of plays and movies. Butterflies are her inspiration:
“We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.”
Guillermo Del Toro, a Mexican filmmaker, author, and actor, said about butterflies:
“The butterfly does not look back upon its caterpillar self, either fondly or wistfully; it simply flies on.”
Leeann Taylor, an author, also loved mentioning the butterflies:
“We are all butterflies. Earth is our chrysalis.”
Short Butterfly Quotes
Gillian Duce Madell, an author, known for her works “Magic and Mayhem: Tree of Knowledge” and “Demons and Dangers,” says:
“Take time to be a butterfly.”
K. D’Angelo is a writer and faculty member who focuses on adult education. He connects butterflies with God.
“Butterflies are God’s confetti, thrown upon the Earth in celebration of His love.”
Richard Bach, an American writer, also mentions butterflies:
“What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.”
Ponce Denis, a French lyric poet, mentions tethered butterflies:
“The butterfly is a flying flower, The flower a tethered butterfly.”
Deborah Chaskin does some introspection:
“Just like the butterfly, I too will awaken in my own time.”
Cute Butterflies Quotes
Mehmet Murat Ildan is a novelist and playwright who mainly works on crime fiction. This is his butterfly quote:
“When the spirit of nature touches us, our hearts turn into a butterfly.”
Richard Buckminster Fuller is a writer, architect, inventor, system theorist, and philosopher who worked on more than 30 books. Here’s one interesting butterfly saying:
“There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it’s going to be a butterfly.”
Rupi Kaur is a Canadian poet, illustrator, photographer, and author, and she says:
“You do not just wake up and become the butterfly” Growth is a process.”
Funny Butterfly Quotes
This quote was all over the forum pages, but there is no specific person credited for the witty statement:
“When butterflies fall in love, do they have humans inside their stomach?”
Here’s another quote that has been circulating online without credit and has been remade into a comic panel:
Caterpillar: “You’ve changed.”
Butterfly: “We’re supposed to.”
Aside from the people mentioned above, others have expressed their admiration for butterflies in countless ways.
- John Keats
- Kjell B. Sandved
- Stephanie Marshall
- Joseph B. Wirthlin
- Jeffrey Glassberg
- Emme Rollins
- Kelseyleigh Reber
- Louie Schwartzberg
- William Stafford
Some of them mentioned that the butterfly can be “a little sunshine.” Others focused on the chrysalis or wings of butterflies and going through challenges in their own time.
Joan is a nocturnal person who loves traveling and coffee. She’s also an animal lover (and rescuer) who makes it a point to befriend every animal she meets. Her passion for learning led her to writing about various topics. As someone who is a nature lover, she aims to continue learning about the wonderful creation—especially butterflies, and at the same time, share her knowledge here at Butterfly Hobbyist.