“I go to books and to nature as the bee goes to a flower, for a nectar that I can make into my own honey.”

“It takes a bee 10,000,000 trips to collect enough nectar to make 1 pound of honey.”

“Consider the honey-bee. Its treasure is nectar, obtained even from the chilly plant. It is not at the cost of the flower. In fact, its act of extracting honey contributes to the progress of the flowers. You need not learn from Kahlil Gibran, Marx or Gorbachev, not even from Gandhiji. Choose instead to learn your lesson from the honey bees as your silent partners: they will show you how to develop without destroying.”

“I have stolen ideas from every book I have ever read. My principle in researching a novel is 'Read like a butterfly, write like a bee', and if this story contains any honey, it is entirely because of the quality of the nectar I found in the work of better writers.”

“I am the bee that will make honey for all.”

“"If there's a buzzing-noise, somebody's making a buzzing-noise, and the only reason for making a buzzing-noise that I know of is because you're a bee."
Then he thought another long time, and said: "And the only reason for being a bee that I know of is making honey."
And then he got up, and said: "And the only reason for making honey is so I can eat it." So he began to climb the tree.”

“I dreamt -- marvellous error! -- that I had a beehive here inside my heart. And the golden bees were making white combs and sweet honey from my old failures.”

“Once, I saw a bee drown in honey, and I understood.”

“The lovely flowers
embarrass me.
They make me regret
I am not a bee…”

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