Bee Quotes 

Women are very critical of each other. I think we need to be helpful to each other, and try not to have a Queen Bee Complex.
Madeleine Albright
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More Bee Quotes 

Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.

muhammad ali

— c.1964  Of his boxing style. Quoted in G Sullivan Cassius Clay (1964), ch.8.

Tags: Float, butterfly, sting

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One can no more think like a baby than one can think like a bee.

lewis padgett

— Rex Holloway, paraphrasing a statement in A High Wind in Jamaica : The Innocent Voyage (1932) by Richard Arthur Warren Hughes:

Tags: One, can, more, think, baby

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If Edison had a needle to find in a haystack, he would proceed at once with the diligence of the bee to examine straw after straw until he found the object of his search. ... I was a sorry witness of such doings, knowing that a little theory and calculation would have saved him ninety per cent of his labor.

nikola tesla

— New York Times (19 October 1931)

Tags: Edison, needle, find, haystack, proceed, once, diligence, examine, straw

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A spider conducts operations that resemble those of a weaver, and a bee puts to shame many an architect in the construction of her cells. But what distinguishes the worst of architects from the best of bees is this, that the architect raises his structure in imagination before he erects it in reality.

karl marx

— Vol. I, Ch. 7, pg.198

Tags: spider, conducts, operations, resemble, weaver, shame, architect, construction, cells

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So sweet, so sweet the roses in their blowing. So sweet the daffodils, so fair to see, so blithe and gay the humming-bird a-going from flower to flower, a-hunting with the bee.

nora perry

— Nora Perry, In June.

Tags: sweet, roses, blowing, daffodils, fair, see, blithe, gay, hummingbird

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Ring-ting! I wish I were a primrose, A bright yellow primrose blowing in the spring! The stooping boughs above me, The wandering bee to love me, The fern and moss to creep across, And the elm-tree for our king!

william allingham

— William Allingham, Wishing, A Child's Song.

Tags: wish, primrose, bright, yellow, blowing, spring, stooping, boughs, above

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Well beloved subjects, wee thought that the clergie of our realme had been our subjectes wholy, but now we have well perceived that they bee but halfe our subjectes, yea, and scarce our subjectes: for all the prelates at their consecration make an othe to the pope, clene contrary to the the that they make to us, so that they seme to be his subjectes, and not ours.

King Henry VIII

— Speech to Parliament (11 May, 1532), as quoted in Hall's Chronicle (1809), edited by Sir Henry Ellis, p. 788
— Well-beloved subjects! we thought that the clergy of our realm had been our subjects wholly, but now, we have well perceived that they be but half our subjects; yea, and scarce our subjects, for all the prelates, at their consecration, take an oath to the Pope clean contrary to the oath they make to us, so that they seem to be his subjects and not ours.As quoted in English Constitutional History from the Teutonic Conquest to the Present Time (1905) by Thomas Pitt Taswell-Langmead, p. 332

Tags: beloved, subjects, thought, our, realme, been, subjectes, now, we

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Her mouth is a honey-blossom,No doubt, as the poet sings;But within her lips, the petals,Lurks a cruel bee that stings.

william dean howells

— The Sarcastic Fair

Tags: mouth, doubt, poet, within, lips, cruel, stings

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The bee isn't really that busy — it just can't buzz any slower.

kin hubbard

— As quoted in Peter's People (1979) by Laurence J. Peter, p. 29

Tags: busy, can't, buzz, slower

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Be valyaunt, but not too venturous. Let thy attyre bee comely, but not costly.

john lyly

— P. 39. Compare: "Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,/ But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy", William Shakespeare, Hamlet, act i, sc. 3.

Tags: venturous, attyre, comely, costly

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“I smell fennel,” Launcelot said. “That reminds me, I should tell you I have discovered a specific for maims. You take salt, good-quality river mud, and bee urine, and slather it on the maim and hold it there for two days. Works like a charm. Gathering the bee urine is a bit of a bore.”

Donald Barthelme

— p. 94 (The King (1990))

Tags: smell, fennel, Launcelot, reminds, me, tell, you, discovered, specific

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The starry brocade of the summer night Is linked to us as part of our estate; And every bee that wings its sidelong flight Assurance of a sweeter, fairer fate.

nathalia crane

— "Tomorrow"

Tags: starry, brocade, summer, night, linked, us, our, estate, wings

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THE PEDIGREE of honey Does not concern the bee; A clover, any time, to him Is aristocracy.


— p. 110. Nature.

Tags: honey, concern, clover, time, him, aristocracy

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Tom Birch is as brisk as a bee in conversation; but no sooner does he take a pen in his hand than it becomes a torpedo to him, and benumbs all his faculties.

samuel johnson

— 1743.

Tags: Tom, Birch, brisk, conversation, sooner, pen, hand, torpedo, him

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What is not good for the swarm is not good for the bee.

marcus aurelius

— VI, 54. (Book VI)

Tags: What, good, swarm

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The bee enclosed and through the amber shown Seems buried in the juice which was his own.


— IV, 32, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919). Compare "Whence we see spiders, flies, or ants entombed and preserved forever in amber, a more than royal tomb", Francis Bacon, Historia Vitæ et Mortis; Sylva Sylvarum, Cent. i. experiment 100.

Tags: enclosed, amber, shown, buried, juice, own

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For too little of tile best Marle can doe but little good, and too nmch therof hath beene alreadie founde to bee verie hurtfull to the Corne.


— p. 30; Cited in: Malcolm Thick (1994) (Diverse new Sorts of Soylenot yet brought into any publique Use, 1594)

Tags: little, tile, best, can, doe, good, nmch, therof, beene

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Sparkling and bright, in liquid light does the wine our goblets gleam in. With hue as red as the rosy bed which a bee would choose to dream in.

Charles Fenno Hoffman

— Charles Fenno Hoffman, Sparkling and Bright.

Tags: Sparkling, bright, liquid, light, wine, our, goblets, gleam, hue

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Her lips were red, and one was thin, Compared to that was next her chin, (Some bee had stung it newly).

Sir John Suckling

— Suckling — A Ballad Upon a Wedding. St. 1 1 .

Tags: lips, red, one, thin, Compared, next, chin, stung, newly

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Saint George shalt called bee, Saint George of mery England, the sign of victoree.

Edmund Spenser

— Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene (1589-96), Book I, Canto X, Stanza 61.

Tags: Saint, George, shalt, mery, England, sign

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A brier rose, whose buds Yield fragrant harvest for the honey bee.


— L. E. Landon, The Oak, line 17.

Tags: brier, rose, buds, Yield, fragrant, harvest, honey

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What plant we in this apple tree? Sweets for a hundred flowery springs To load the May-wind's restless wings, When, from the orchard-row, he pours Its fragrance through our open doors; A world of blossoms for the bee, Flowers for the sick girl's silent room, For the glad infant sprigs of bloom, We plant with the apple tree.

william cullen bryant

— The Planting of the Apple Tree

Tags: What, plant, we, apple, tree, Sweets, hundred, flowery, springs

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In the nice bee, what sense so subtly true From pois'nous herbs extracts the healing dew?

Alexander Pope

— Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man (1733-34), Epistle I, 219.

Tags: nice, what, sense, subtly, true, pois'nous, herbs, extracts, healing

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There is many a rich stone laid up in the bowells of the earth, many a fair pearle in the bosome of the sea, that never was seene nor never shall bee.


— Bishop Hall, Contemplations, Veil of Moses, I, VI, p. 872. See Quarterly Review, No, XXII, p. 314.

Tags: There, rich, stone, laid, earth, fair, pearle, sea, never

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Where the bee sucks, there suck I; In a cowslip's bell I lie; There I couch when owls do cry. On the bat's back I do fly.

william shakespeare

— William Shakespeare, The Tempest (c. 1610-1612), Act V, scene 1, line 88. Song

Tags: sucks, there, suck, cowslip's, bell, lie, couch, when, owls

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Let thy attyre bee comely, but not costly.

john lyly

— John Lyly, Euphues (Ed. 1579), p. 39.

Tags: attyre, comely, costly

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As the dew to the blossom, the bud to the bee, as the scent to the rose, are those memories to me.


— Amelia B. Welby, Pulpit Eloquence.

Tags: dew, blossom, bud, scent, rose, memories, me

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Where the bee sucks, there suck I; In a cowslip's bell I lie; There I couch when owls do cry. On the bat's back I do fly After summer merrily. Merrily, merrily, shall I live now, Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.


— Ariel, scene i

Tags: sucks, there, suck, cowslip's, bell, lie, couch, when, owls

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The Pedigree of Honey Does not concern the bee A Clover, any time, to him, Is Aristocracy


— c.1884  Complete Poems, no.1627 (first published1890).

Tags: Honey, concern, time, him, Aristocracy

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