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Caterpillars Quotes

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Caterpillars Quotes

“The missions were always changing- sometimes collecting jars of rain, paper bags of hiccups, adopting lost moonbeams and folding them into cake batter. Or perhaps investigating glittering slug trails left in the moonlight, finding the owners of abandoned buttons, or playing the sousaphone for caterpillars still in their cocoons.”

ImaginationRainMissionsMoonlightJarsAdoptingCaterpillarsPaper BagsHiccupsCollectSousaphoneAbandoned ButtonsMoonbeams Cake BatterSlug Trails
Book:Beyond the Laughing Sky
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“Well, I must endure the presence of two or three caterpillars if I wish to become acquainted with the butterflies. It seems that they are very beautiful. And if not the butterflies– and the caterpillars– who will call upon me? You will be far away. . . as for the large animals– I am not at all afraid of any of them. I have my claws.” And, navely, she showed her four thorns. Then she added: “Don’t linger like this. You have decided to go away. Now go!” For she did not want him to see her crying. She was such a proud flower. . .”

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Book:The Little Prince
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“I think that positivity— real positivity— is like the butterflies. The whole essence of the butterfly: caterpillar, cocoon, winged creature. When I look at a butterfly, I not only see a winged beauty, but I also see a strong beauty! A mind that decided: "I'm going to become better, I'm not going to be afraid of the dark, I'm going to roll myself up in this thing that I am and I will come out winged and colourful." A butterfly can never become a butterfly unless the caterpillar realises that it needs to become one. This, to me, is true positivity. I don't like what others do— the way they paint on colours and tape on wings. I like what the caterpillars do. They truly BECOME.”

ChangeTransformationPositivityGuidanceButterfliesCaterpillarsHow To ChangeHow To Be PositiveNot Afraid Of The DarkTrue TransformationTrue PositivityGenuine PositivityHow To Become BetterReal Positivity
Author:C. JoyBell C.
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“Many caterpillars defend themselves not by striking fear in the hearts of their predators, but rather indifference. The large maple spanworm looks like a twig; the viceroy caterpillar looks like a bird dropping. This is not as exciting as looking like an anaconda, but when you are very small, and wingless, one of your main goals in life is to not be exciting. And speaking of unexciting—I think it is safe to say that woolly bears have one of the least advanced defense mechanisms among insects, although theirs is the reaction with which I most strongly identify: when distressed, the woolly bear rolls up into a ball.”

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Book:Things That Are
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“The caterpillars are coming. They’re coming. As they passed a blunt rolled with marijuana shake around the bonfire, filled plastic cups with beer from a keg in the back of John Anderson’s Bronco, snuck cigarettes at the red doors that led to the make-out woods behind school. As they waited on line at the cafeteria for pizza and Tater Tots, warmed up during choral practice, and changed for gym in the locker room. Until Maddie felt something titanic rushing toward the island, gathering steam like a nor’easter barreling toward shore, and the waiting filled with a tingling urgency she knew they all felt. She felt it. Car engines revved harder, highs soared higher, buzzes and crushes burned brighter. “Look.” She lifted her palm as the insect inched across. The two lines of blue and red dots on its back glimmered like spots of blood rising after a pinprick. “They’re here.”

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Book:The Gypsy Moth Summer
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“Cut a chrysalis open, and you will find a rotting caterpillar. What you will never find is that mythical creature, half caterpillar, half butterfly, a fit emblem for the human soul, for those whose cast of mind leads them to seek such emblems. No, the process of transformation consists almost entirely of decay.”

MindHumansSoulProcessHalfCuttingFitCreaturesTransformationCastsButterflyDecayHuman SoulCaterpillarsRottingEmblemsDeteriorationMythical CreaturesChrysalis
Author:Pat Barker
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“The colours of insects and many smaller animals contribute to conceal them from the larger ones which prey upon them. Caterpillars which feed on leaves are generally green; and earth-worms the colour of the earth which they inhabit; butter-flies, which frequent flowers, are coloured like them; small birds which frequent hedges have greenish backs like the leaves, and light-coloured bellies like the sky, and are hence less visible to the hawk who passes under them or over them.”

LightEarthScienceNatureNaturalAnimalSkyFlowerBirdGreenColourVisibleWormsBellyInsectsPreyHawksCaterpillars
Book:The Botanic Garden: A Poem, in Two Parts: Part I. Containing The Economy of Vegetation. Part II. The Loves of the Plants
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“Fighting has taught me that the caterpillar takes a while to turn into a majestic butterfly! Patience, hard work, dedication, never giving up, rising to the occasion and fighting through adversity will make you a champion; if there a will there's a way! Set your sails now but the ocean is very rough and treacherous however if you keep going you will get there.”

IfsWayGivingHardTurnsFightingTaughtHard WorkGiving UpOceanAdversityOccasionsChampionRisingRoughMmaKeep GoingDedicationButterflySailNever Giving UpMajesticTreacherousCaterpillarsWork DedicationHard Work DedicationFighting Through
Author:Jesse Taylor
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“A question arises regarding the angels who dwell with us, serve us and protect us, whether their joys are equal to those of the angels in heaven, or whether they are diminished by the fact that they protect and serve us. No, they are certainly not; for the work of the angels is the will of God, and the will of God is the work of the angels; their service to us does not hinder their joy nor their working. If God told an angel to go to a tree and pluck caterpillars off it, the angel would be quite ready to do so, and it would be his happiness, if it were the will of God.”

IfsDoeFactsWould BeJoyHeavenTreeReadyProtectEqualAngelAriseGods WillHinderPluckCaterpillarsAngel In HeavenProtect And Serve
Book:Meister Eckhart's Sermons
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“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.”

PeopleWritingHumansSaidBookMightHuman BeingsAbilityMastersGeniusSaintSelfishEggsButterflyEaglesCaterpillarsMonasteries
Book:One Minute Wisdom
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“I am a technophile, so there is no such thing as a first draft. The first draft plunges on, and about a quarter of the way through it I realise I'm doing things wrong, so I start rewriting it. What you call the first draft becomes rather like a caterpillar; it is progressing fairly slowly, but there is movement up and down its whole length, the whole story is being changed. I call this draft zero, telling myself how the story is supposed to go.”

WayFirstsWholeStoriesProgressMovementChangedLengthZeroRealisingQuartersUp And DownPlungeRewritingCaterpillars
Author:Terry Pratchett
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“We are the bird's eggs. Bird's eggs, flowers, butterflies, rabbits, cows, sheep, we are caterpillars; we are leaves of ivy and springs of wildflower. We are women. We rise from the wave. We are gazelle and doe, elephant and whale, lilies and roses and peach, we are air, we are flame, we are oyster and pearl, we are girls. We are woman and nature. And he says he cannot hear us speak. But we hear.”

DoeGirlSpeakAirFlowerSpringBirdRoseWaveFlamesEggsCowsSheepButterflyElephantsPearlsRabbitsWhalesLiliesIvyOystersPeachesCaterpillarsWildflowersGazelles
Author:Susan Griffin
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“The matter of making christening robes for caterpillars, it is not a difficult one; the difficulty is to get a frisky caterpillar to keep still while one is putting on his christening robe. And then it is a problem to keep it on, after one does get it on. I do have much troubles with caterpillars crawling out of their christening robes after I do get them on.”

DoeStillsMatterProblemDifficultTroubleDifficultyInsectsRobesCrawlingCaterpillarsChristening
Author:Opal Whiteley
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“It is the fixed that horrifies us, the fixed that assails us with the tremendous force of mindlessness. The fixed is a Mason jar,and we can't beat it open. ...The fixed is a world without fire--dead flint, dead tinder, and nowhere a spark. It is motion without direction, force without power, the aimless procession of caterpillars round the rim of a vase, and I hate it because at any moment I myself might step to that charmed and glistening thread.”

WorldMomentsMightHateForceStepsFireBeatsI HateRoundsFixedSparksThreadFutilityJarsCaterpillarsMasonsCharmedRimsProcessionVasesTinder
Book:PILGRIM AT TINKER CREEK
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“That author who draws a character, even though to common view incongruous in its parts, as the flying-squirrel, and, at differentperiods, as much at variance with itself as the caterpillar is with the butterfly into which it changes, may yet, in so doing, be not false but faithful to facts.”

MayCharacterFactsViewsCommonFictionCreativityDrawsFlyingFaithfulButterflySquirrelsCaterpillarsVariance
Book:The Confidence-man: His Masquerade
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“Do not say that I'll depart tomorrow because even today I still arrive. Look at me: I arrive in every second to be a bud on a spring branch, to be a tiny bird whose wings are still fragile, learning to sing in my new nest, to be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower, to be a jewel hiding itself in a stone.”

LooksHeartStillsTodayLearningFlowerTomorrowSpringBirdStonesWingsTinyBranchesHidingFragileLook At MeJewelsNestsBudEvery SecondCaterpillars
Author:Nhat Hanh
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“The three states of the caterpillar, larva, and butterfly have, since the time of the Greek poets, been applied to typify the human being,--its terrestrial form, apparent death, and ultimate celestial destination.”

HumansStatesFormThreeHuman BeingsPoetUltimateImmortalityGreekDestinationButterflyCelestialCaterpillars
Book:Salmonia: Or, Days of Fly Fishing. With Some Account of the Habits of Fishes Belonging to the Genus Salmo
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“Y'know scientists are funny. We probe and measure and dissect. Invent lights without heat, weigh a caterpillar's eyebrow. But whenit comes to really important things we're as stupid as the caveman.... Like love. Makes the world go 'round, but what do we know about it? Is it a fact? Is it chemistry? Electricity?”

KnowsWorldLoveImportantFactsLightScienceStupidScientistImportant ThingsRoundsHeatChemistryElectricityEyebrowsLike LoveCaterpillars
Author:Martin Berkeley
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“I have friends who are capable of writing a very rough draft and then going back and embroidering - they're sort of the cathedral builders of fiction. I never really know what I'm doing, and all my pleasure's on the level of the line. It's a weird way to move forward. It's kind of like a way to caterpillar your way through these great woods. The best ones, whatever I feel like I'm writing about, some other secret thing will begin to come into focus.”

KnowsWayFeelsWritingKindMovingLinesPleasureLevelsSecretFictionFocusCapableWoodsMoving ForwardRoughBuilderCathedralsCaterpillarsRough Drafts
Author:Karen Russell
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“In the dream of approaching forty I saw myself as about to die and realized that I was no longer myself, but a creature inhabited entirely by parasites, as a caterpillar is occupied by the grubs of the ichneumon fly. Gin, whisky, sloth, fear, guilt, tobacco, had made themselves my inquilines; alcohol sloshed about within, while tendrils of melon and vine grew out of ears and nostrils; my mind was a worn gramophone record, my true self was such a ruin as to seem non-existent, and all this had happened in the last three years.”

YearsMindMadeSelfDreamSeemsLastsDiesThreeRecordsSawsHappenedGrewCreaturesEarsGuiltAlcoholRuinsFortyThree YearsWornTrue SelfTobaccoVinesSlothParasitesGinCaterpillarsWhiskyMelons
Author:Cyril Connolly
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