"Who breaks a butterfly on a wheel?" is a quotation from Alexander Pope's Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot of 1735, which has entered common use and has become associated with more recent figures. Alexander Pope, an English poet best known for his Essay on Criticism and Rape of the Lock Pope, circa 1727. ...

William Rees-Mogg as editor of The Times newspaper used the quotation as the heading for an editorial on 1 July 1967 about the outcome of the Redlands court case on drugs possession which resulted in harsh sentences of three months imprisonment being handed down to Rolling Stones members Keith Richards and Mick Jagger. The editorial is thought to have contributed to the success of the Stones' successful appeal against the sentences. William Rees-Mogg, Baron Rees-Mogg (born July 14, 1928) is a journalist and politician in the United Kingdom. ... The Times is a national newspaper published daily in the United Kingdom. ... July 1 is the 182nd day of the year (183rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 183 days remaining. ... 1967 (MCMLXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar (the link is to a full 1967 calendar). ... The Rolling Stones are a British rock group that rose to prominence during the British Invasion in the 1960s. ... Album photograph by Sante D’orazio Keith Richards (born 18 December 1943 in Dartford, Kent, England), is an English guitarist and songwriter, best known for his work with The Rolling Stones. ... Wax figure of Mick Jagger at Prague wax museum Sir Michael Philip Mick Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English rock musician, actor, writer, songwriter, record and film producer and businessman. ...

The philosopher Mary Midgley used a variation on the phrase in an article in the journal Philosophy written to counter a review praising The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins, where she cuttingly said that she "not attended to Dawkins, thinking it unnecessary to break a butterfly upon a wheel." Dawkins replied that this statement would be "hard to match, in reputable journals, for its patronising condescension toward a fellow academic." The name Butterflies And Wheels was then adopted by a website set up to oppose Pseudoscience, Epistemic relativism and those disciplines or schools of thought whose truth claims are prompted by the political, ideological and moral commitments of their adherents. The Philosopher (detail), by Rembrandt Philosophy is a study that includes diverse subfields such as aesthetics, epistemology, ethics, logic, and metaphysics. ... Mary Midgley, née Scrutton, (b. ... The Selfish Gene is a somewhat controversial book by Richard Dawkins. ... Richard Dawkins Clinton Richard Dawkins DSc, FRS, FRSL (known as Richard Dawkins; born March 26, 1941) is an eminent British ethologist, evolutionary theorist, and popular science writer who holds the Charles Simonyi Chair in the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University. ... Phrenology is regarded today as being a classic example of pseudoscience. ...

External links

• Quotations About / On: BUTTERFLY
• Redlands Bust
• Gene Juggling Mary Midgley, 1979. Philosophy 54, no. 210, pp. 439-458.
• About Butterflies and Wheels