What does this quote mean - 'Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?'?

Question

just ideas rough ones. please thanks :D

Answer 1

I'll just quote the wikipedia article:

"Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?" is a quotation – sometimes misquoted with "on" in place of "upon" – from Alexander Pope's "Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot" of January 1735. The line has entered common use and has become associated with more recent figures.

It can be taken as referring to putting massive effort into achieving something minor or unimportant, and alludes to "breaking on the wheel", a form of torture in which victims had their long bones broken by an iron bar while tied to a cartwheel.