Quotes About Metamorphosis

I sense something deep inside me drawing me in, tugging at me like an undertow. I want to give in to it, be seized by it. I want to give up my bearings, slip out of who I am, shed everything, the way a snake discards old skin.

Every day we wake up into a new world, each sleep causes yet another reincarnation.

I died as mineral and became a plant, I died as plant and rose to animal. I died as animal and I was human. Why should I fear? When was I less by dying? Yet once more I shall die human, To soar with angels blessed above. And when I sacrifice my angel soul I shall become what no mind ever conceived.

To live is to change, to die one hundred deaths.

But for some reason I have not yet become a fish. - The Box Man, p.36

when men like us do change, the change is profound.

Nïx paused dramatically. "I will rise from the ashes of the old ways to become Phenïx, the goddess of . . . accessions.

But the longer a man grows in his own darkness, the more his outer form diminishes

What yesterday was still religion is no longer such today; and what today is atheism, tomorrow will be religion.

Die happily and look forward to taking up a new and better form. Like the sun, only when you set in the west can you rise in the east.

A human being does not cease to exist at death. It is change, not destruction, which takes place.

When it comes to religion today, we tend to be long on butterflies and short on cocoons. Somehow we're going to have to relearn that the deep things of God don't come suddenly.

The moment we indulge our affections, the earth is metamorphosed.

I hope that I am making myself understood. The Golden Temple once more appeared before me. Or rather, I should say that the breast was transformed into the Golden Temple.

I'm turning you into a girl chasing a butterfly, a she-wolf on a hilltop, & then back into a woman.

Dios. El sacerdote exclamaba «Hoc est corpus meum!» («¡Este es mi cuerpo!»), y, ¡abracadabra!, el pan se convertía en la carne de Cristo.

Today, I went to sleep under a plum tree. There, I dreamed I was a butterfly, flying so pleasently. Then, I fell asleep, and the dream ended. Now- I have to ask myself - am I Zhuang Zi who dreamed of a butterfly? Or am I that butterfly, dreaming I am Zhuang Zi?

Once upon a time, I dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly, unaware that I was myself. Soon I awaked, and there I was, veritably myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man.

Once upon a time, I, Chuang Tzu, dreamt that i was a butterfly. flitting around and enjoying myself. I had no idea I was Chuang Tzu. Then suddenly I woke up and was Chuang Tzu again. But I could not tell, had I been Chuang Tzu dreaming I was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming I was now Chuang Tzu? However, there must be some sort of difference between Chuang Tzu and a butterfly! We call this the transformation of things.

Once Zhuang Zhou dreamed he was a butterfly. A butterfly fluttering happily around— was he revealing what he himself meant to be? He knew nothing of Zhou. All at once awakening, there suddenly he was — Zhou. But he didn't know if he was Zhou having dreamed he was a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming he was Zhou. Between Zhou and the butterfly there must surely be some distinction. This is known at the transformation of things.

Deliquescence.

It was obvious that the woman was trying to turn over a new leaf, so we bought all her bowls. I got a gigantic stoneware one with a flat bottom, like you'd use if you were making bread for the whole army, and I knew I would have to change my whole life to have a use for this bowl.

My brother, are you aware that you are presently taking the form of a rather large and distinctly emerald-hued bear? Not that it isn't an improvement on your usual excessive good lucks, but...

Just like the butterfly, I too will awaken in my own time.