„Once upon a time, I, Chuang Chou, dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly.“

— Zhuangzi

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„I am far from wanting to resist the demands of my time, except when they are purely a matter of fashion. Instead, I continue to hope that time itself will destroy its own offspring, perhaps quite soon. But I am not so weak as to submit to the demands of the age when they go against my convictions. I spin a cocoon around myself; let others do the same. I shall leave it up to time to show what will come of it: a brilliant butterfly or a maggot.“
— Caspar David Friedrich
„There is no such thing as a happy ending. I never met a single one to equal "Once upon a time.“
— Stephen King
„Once upon a time the plural of 'wizard' was 'war'.“
— Terry Pratchett
„Just so you know, when they say "once upon a time"…. they're lying. It's not once upon a time. Its not even twice upon a time. It's hundreds of times, over and over, every time someone opens up the pages of this dusty old book.“
— Jodi Picoult
„If time and space, as sages say,Are things which cannot be,The sun which does not feel decayNo greater is than we.So why, Love, should we ever prayTo live a century?The butterfly that lives a dayHas lived eternity.“
— T.S. Eliot