“The flower doesn’t dream of the bee. It blossoms and the bee comes.”

“The bee and the serpent often sip from the selfsame flower.”

Pietro Metastasio (1698–1782) Italian poet and librettist (born 3 January 1698, died 12 April 1782)

“You are like one of your bees, going from flower to flower, sampling the nectar of this and that.”

Nick Drake (poet) (1961) British writer

“Bee, why are you staring at me? I am not a flower??”

Jack Kerouac (1922–1969) American writer

“They built a temple for the God,
'Twas in a myrtle grove,
Where the bee and the butterfly
Vied for each blossom's love.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) English poet and novelist

“Handle a book as a bee does a flower, extract its sweetness but do not damage it.”

John Muir (1838–1914) Scottish-born American naturalist and author

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

Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) American poet

“Oh, call my brother back to me!
I cannot play alone:
The summer comes with flower and bee,—
Where is my brother gone?”

Felicia Hemans The Child's First Grief

“A comely olde man as busie as a bee.”

John Lyly (1554–1606) English politician

“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 (1837–1920) author, critic and playwright from the United States