quotations about bees
Wiser far than human seer,
Yellow-breeched philosopher!
Seeing only what is fair,
Sipping only what is sweet,
Thou dost mock at fate and care,
Leave the chaff and take the wheat.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
"The Humble-Bee"
The honey-bee that wanders all day long ...
Seeks not alone the rose's glowing breast,
The lily's dainty cup, the violet's lips,
But from all rank and noxious weeds he sips
The single drop of sweetness closely pressed
Within the poison chalice.
ANNE BOTTA
The Lesson of the Bee
The only time I ever believed that I knew all there was to know about beekeeping was the first year I was keeping them. Every year since I've known less and less and have accepted the humbling truth that bees know more about making honey than I do.
SUE HUBBELL
A Book of Bees: And How to Keep Them
The bee's life is like a magic well: the more you draw from it, the more it fills with water.
KARL VON FRISCH
Bees: Their Vision, Chemical Senses and Language
No good sensible working bee listens to the advice of a bedbug on the subject of business.
ELBERT HUBBARD
Epigrams
Where there are bees there are flowers, and wherever there are flowers there is new life and hope.
CHRISTY LEFTERI
The Beekeeper of Aleppo
The bee that hath honey in her mouth, hath a sting in her tail.
JOHN LYLY
Euphues
To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,
One clover, and a bee,
And revery.
The revery alone will do,
If bees are few.
EMILY DICKINSON
Poems
A bee is never as busy as it seems; it's just that it can't buzz any slower.
KIN HUBBARD
attributed, The Modern Handbook of Humor
Burly dozing humblebee!
Where thou art is clime for me.
Let them sail for Porto Rique,
Far-off heats through seas to seek,
I will follow thee alone,
Thou animated torrid zone!
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
"The Humble-Bee"
Some say the bee stings: but I say, 'tis the bee's wax.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Henry VI
Ah! woe is me; woe, woe is me,
Alack and well-a-day!
For pity, Sir, find out that bee
Which bore my love away.
I'll seek him in your bonnet brave,
I'll seek him in your eyes;
Nay, now I think th'ave made his grave
I' th' bed of strawberries.
ROBERT HERRICK
The Mad Maid's Song
Men, like bees, want room. When the hive is overflowing, the bees will swarm, and will be likely to take up their abode where they find the best prospect for honey. In matters of this sort, men are very much like bees.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS
"Our Composite Nationality"