Butterfly Quotes
What the caterpillar calls the end, the rest of the world calls a butterfly.
"What the caterpillar calls the end, the rest of the world calls a butterfly."— Lao Tzu
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Meaning of this quote
Transformation can look like an ending from a limited perspective.
Key takeaway:
Consider whether a difficult change also contains a new possibility.
Origin of the quote
A modern butterfly metaphor related to Richard Bach’s Illusions (1977).
Who actually said this?
Likely misattributedThe wording is a variant of Bach’s caterpillar-and-butterfly passage, not a Tao Te Ching sentence. Crediting this English version to Laozi is misleading.








