Beauty Quote by Emily Brontë
““At that moment the universe appeared to me a vast machine constructed only to produce evil. I almost doubted the goodness of God, in not annihilating man on the day he first sinned. "The world should have been destroyed," I said, "crushed as I crush this reptile which has done nothing in its life but render all that it touches as disgusting as itself." I had scarcely removed my foot from the poor insect when, like a censoring angel sent from heaven, there came fluttering through the trees a butterfly with large wings of lustrous gold and purple. It shone but a moment before my eyes; then, rising among the leaves, it vanished into the height of the azure vault. I was mute, but an inner voice said to me, "Let not the creature judge his Creator; here is a symbol of the world to come. As the ugly caterpillar is the origin of the splendid butterfly, so this globe is the embryo of a new heaven and a new earth whose poorest beauty will infinitely exceed your mortal imagination. And when you see the magnificent result of that which seems so base to you now, how you will scorn your blind presumption, in accusing Omniscience for not having made nature perish in her infancy. God is the god of justice and mercy; then surely, every grief that he inflicts on his creatures, be they human or animal, rational or irrational, every suffering of our unhappy nature is only a seed of that divine harvest which will be gathered when, Sin having spent its last drop of venom, Death having launched its final shaft, both will perish on the pyre of a universe in flames and leave their ancient victims to an eternal empire of happiness and glory.””
About This Quote
Source Poem: The Dark Night, Emily Brontë, 1845
The speaker confronts a bleak view of the world as evil, then is humbled by a fleeting, beautiful butterfly, symbolizing hope and transformation beyond suffering.
In simple terms: A dark view of the world is softened by a brief, beautiful butterfly that suggests hope.
Seek moments of beauty that remind you of larger, hopeful cycles.
Themes
Mood
Type
When to use this quote
- grief processing
- spiritual reflection
- creative writing
- nature observation
- personal crisis
Key Concepts
Questions to Reflect On
- How can fleeting beauty shift a painful perspective?
- What does the butterfly represent in your own struggles?
The metaphor may be overly optimistic for real suffering.