| The Columbia World of Quotations. 1996. |
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| NUMBER: | 35855 |
| QUOTATION: | 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. |
| ATTRIBUTION: | Primo Levi (1919–1987), Italian chemist, author. “Butterflies,” Other People’s Trades (1985, trans. 1989). |
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| | | The Columbia World of Quotations. Copyright © 1996 Columbia University Press. |
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