“Concerning the generation of animals akin to them, as hornets and wasps, the facts in all cases are similar to a certain extent, but are devoid of the extraordinary features which characterize bees; this we should expect, for they have nothing divine about them as the bees have.”

— Aristotle, book Generation of Animals

Book III, 761a.2
Generation of Animals

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Concerning the generation of animals akin to them, as hornets and wasps, the facts in all cases are similar to a certai…" by Aristotle?

Aristotle photo

Aristotle230

Classical Greek philosopher, student of Plato and founder o… -384–-321 BC

Related quotes

“The mad mob does not ask how it could be better, only that it be different. And when it then becomes worse, it must change again. Thus they get bees for flies, and at last hornets for bees.”

Martin Luther (1483–1546) seminal figure in Protestant Reformation

Whether Soldiers Can Also Be in a State of Grace (1526)

“Beekeepers, yes … they've gotta want to be – "I want to be a beekeeper! I wanna keep bees! Don't wanna let them get away; I wanna keep them! They have too much freedom … I want bees on elastic, so when they get pollen, they come back here! My father was a beekeeper before me, his father was a beekeeper before him; I wanna walk in their footsteps." And their footsteps were like this: [running wildly from imaginary bees] "I'm covered in bees!"”

Eddie Izzard (1962) British stand-up comedian, actor and writer

Glorious (1997)

“Laws are like Cobwebs which may catch small Flies, but let Wasps and Hornets break through.”

Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, and poet

A Tritical Essay upon the Faculties of the Mind (1707)
Context: Laws are like Cobwebs which may catch small Flies, but let Wasps and Hornets break through. But in Oratory the greatest Art is to hide Art.

“And wel we see ther is none alive that in every respect may be accompted happie, yea though mortall men were free from all calamities, yet the torments & feare of death should stil attend them But b:sides them, behold, what, and how manye evilles there bee, that unlesse the cloude of error bee removed, impossible it is to see the truth, or receive allay of our earthly woes.”

Girolamo Cardano (1501–1576) Italian Renaissance mathematician, physician, astrologer

Cardanus Comforte (1574)

“The connection of Islam to Arabism is not, therefore, similar to that of any religion to any nationalism. The Arab Christians, when their nationalism is fully awakened and when they restore their genuine character, will recognize that Islam for them is nationalist education in which they have to be absorbed in order to understand and love it to the extent that they become concerned about Islam as about the most precious thing in their Arabism. If the actual reality is still far from this wish, the new generation of Arab Christians has a task which it should perform with daring and detachment, sacrificing for it their pride and benefits, for there is nothing that equals Arabism and the honor of belonging to it.”

Michel Aflaq (1910–1989) Syrian philosopher, sociologist and Arab nationalist

In Memory of the Arab Prophet (1 April 1943)

“We think we are smart because we have been flying for about sixty years. Birds and bees and butterflies have been flying for hundreds of thousands of years.”

Charles Kettering (1876–1958) American inventor, engineer, businessman, and the holder of 140 patents

as quoted in Boss Ket (1961) by Rosamond McPherson Young p. 194

“959. Bees that have Honey in their Mouths, have Stings in their Tails.”

Thomas Fuller (writer) (1654–1734) British physician, preacher, and intellectual

Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)

“There is nothing to be found in a beehive that is not submerged in a bee. And yet you can search a bee forever with cyclotron and fluoroscope, and you will never find a hive.”

Kevin Kelly (1952) American author and editor

Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems and the Economic World (1995)

“Bees do have a smell, you know, and if they don't they should, for their feet are dusted with spices from a million flowers.”

Ray Bradbury book Dandelion Wine

Source: Dandelion Wine

“Bee Movie was definitely my favorite movie that I've starred in, because I've always wanted to be a bee. They seem to have the most organized society on earth, and they make honey! Which is a pretty amazing product.”

Jerry Seinfeld (1954) American comedian and actor

Reddit "Ask Me Anything" #3 (2016)

Related topics