Insects

"None preaches better than the ant, and she says nothing."

"I learn more from the anatomy of an ant or a blade of grass...than from all the books which have been written since the beginning of time. This is so, since I have begun...to read the book of God...the model according to which I correct the human books which have been copied badly and arbitrarily and without attention to the things that are written in the original book of the Universe."

"Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise."

"While an ant was wandering under the shade of the tree of Phæton, a drop of amber enveloped the tiny insect; thus she, who in life was disregarded, became precious by death."

"Parvula (nam exemplo est) magni formica laboris Ore trahit, quodcunque potest, atque addit acervo Quem struit; haud ignara ac non incauta futuri."

"Ants never sleep."

"It was not until the ant and Veig had passed each other that Niall realized that he had been reading the ant's mind. It was a sensation like actually being the ant, as if he had momentarily taken possession of its body. And while he had been inside the ant's body, he had also become aware of all the other ants in the nest. It was a bewildering feeling, as if his mind had shattered into thousands of fragments, yet each fragment remained a coherent part of the whole."

"It is not enough to be industrious; so are the ants. What are you industrious about?"

"The ant’s a centaur in his dragon world."

"That swarm of ants that I observed, each one following the one ahead, have every one been Indra in the world of the gods by virtue of their own past action. And now, by virtue of their deeds done in the past, they have gradually fallen to the state of ants."

"If ants are such busy workers, how come they find time to go to all the picnics?"

"Fry: It's just like the story of the grasshopper and the octopus. All year long, the grasshopper kept burying acorns for winter, while the octopus mooched off his girlfriend and watched TV. But then the winter came, and the grasshopper died, and the octopus ate all his acorns. Also he got a race car. Is any of this getting through to you?"

"If you wish you can tell about the locust (as well). Allah gave it two red eves, lighted for them two moon -- like pupils, made for it small ears, opened for it a suitable mouth and gave it keen sense, gave it two teeth to cut with and two sickle-like feet to grip with. The Farmers are afraid of it in the matter of crops since they cannot drive it away even though they may join together. The locust attacks the fields and satisfies its desires (of hunger) from them although its body is not equal to a thin finger."

"When all the birds are faint with the hot sun, And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead; That is the grasshopper's — he takes the lead In summer luxury — he has never done With his delights, for when tired out with fun, He rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed."

"Green little vaulter, in the sunny grass, Catching your heart up at the feel of June, Sole noise that's heard amidst the lazy noon, When ev"n the bees lag at the summoning brass."

"Happy insect! what can be In happiness compared to thee? Fed with nourishment divine, The dewy morning's gentle wine! Nature waits upon thee still, And thy verdant cup does fill; 'Tis fill'd wherever thou dost tread, Nature's self's thy Ganymede."

"Chiefs who no more in bloody fights engage, But wise through time, and narrative with age, In summer-days like grasshoppers rejoice — A bloodless race, that send a feeble voice."

"Twere better far That gods should quaff their nectar merrily, And men sing out the day like grasshoppers, So may they haply lull the watchful thunder."

"Because half-a-dozen grasshoppers under a fern make the field ring with their importunate chink, whilst thousands of great cattle, reposed beneath the shadow of the British oak, chew the cud and are silent, pray do not imagine that those who make the noise are the only inhabitants of the field; that of course they are many in number; or that, after all, they are other than the little shrivelled, meagre, hopping, though loud and troublesome insects of the hour."

"It was many and many a year ago, In a District styled E. C., That a monster dwelt whom I came to know By the name of Cannibal Flea, And the brute was possessed with no other thought Than to live — and to live on me."

"The wild Bee reels from bough to bough With his furry coat and his gauzy wing, Now in a lily cup, and now Setting a jacinth bell a-swing, In his wandering."

"How doth the little busy bee Improve each shining hour, And gather honey all the day From every opening flower."

"The little bee returns with evening's gloom, To join her comrades in the braided hive, Where, housed beside their mighty honey-comb, They dream their polity shall long survive."

"The solitary Bee Whose buzzing was the only sound of life, Flew there on restless wing, Seeking in vain one blossom where to fix."

"For so work the honey-bees, Creatures that by a rule in nature teach The act of order to a peopled kingdom. They have a king and officers of sorts, Where some, like magistrates, correct at home, Others, like merchants, venture trade abroad, Others like soldiers, armed in their stings, Make boot upon the summers velvet buds, Which pillage they with merry march bring home."

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

"The bee is enclosed, and shines preserved, in a tear of the sisters of Phaeton, so that it seems enshrined in its own nectar. It has obtained a worthy reward for its great toils; we may suppose that the bee itself would have desired such a death."

"As busie as a Bee."

"Listen! O, listen! Here ever hum the golden bees Underneath full-blossoined trees, At once with glowing fruit and flowers crowned."

"O bees, sweet bees!" I said; "that nearest field Is shining white with fragrant immortelles. Fly swiftly there and drain those honey wells."

"For pitty, Sir, find out that Bee Which bore my Love away I'le seek him in your Bonnet brave, He seek him in your eyes."

"Bees work for man, and yet they never bruise Their Master's flower, but leave it having done, As fair as ever and as fit to use; So both the flower doth stay and honey run."

"The careful insect 'midst his works I view, Now from the flowers exhaust the fragrant dew, With golden treasures load his little thighs, And steer his distant journey through the skies."

"Seeing only what is fair, Sipping only what is sweet, ** * Leave the chaff, and take the wheat."

"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!"

"His labor is a chant, His idleness a tune; Oh, for a bee's experience Of clovers and of noon!"

"The pedigree of honey Does not concern the bee; A clover, any time, to him Is aristocracy."

"The honey-bee that wanders all day long The field, the woodland, and the garden o'er, To gather in his fragrant winter store, Humming in calm content his winter song, 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."

"Nature’s confectioner, the bee, (Whose suckets are moist alchemy, The still of his refining mold Minting the garden into gold,) Having rifled all the fields Of what dainty Flora yields, Ambitious now to take exercise Of a more fragrant paradise, At my Fuscara’s sleeve arrived Where all delicious sweets are hived."

"Forget not bees in winter, though they sleep."

"Hi motus animorum atque haec certamina tanta Pulveris exigui jactu compressa quiescunt."

"Ingentes animos angusto in pectore versant."

"I began following Grandpa everywhere, climbing into his in the mornings and going to work with him. Thus began my education in the of , where I learned that a beehive revolved around one principle—the family. Grandpa taught me the hidden language of bees, how to interpret their movements and sounds, and to recognize the different scents they release to communicate with hive mates. His stories about the Shakespearean plots to overthrow the queen and its hierarchy of job positions swept me away to a secret realm when my own became too difficult."

"s are among the few species of bee to live together as a colony—even s, who are social in summer, reduce down to a single queen in winter. They work to produce as much honey as they can while flowers are blooming, so as to sustain themselves through the cold season."

"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."

"So, naturalists observe, a flea Has smaller fleas that on him prey; And these have smaller still to bite 'em, And so proceed ad infinitum. Thus every poet in his kind Is bit by him that comes behind."

"Panurge auoyt la pulee en l'oreille."

"Then mimick'd my voice with satyrical sneer, And sent me away with a Flea in my ear."

"I do honour the very flea of his dog."

"A blockhead, bit by fleas, put out the light, And chuckling cried, "Now you can't see to bite.""