The world is full of insects, and full of quotes and proverbs in which insects are mentioned. Enjoy!
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Go to the ant you sluggard.
BibleSource: Proverbs 6:6
A warning against laziness.
God has an inordinate fondness for beetles.
J.B.S. HaldaneGod in His wisdom made the fly
And then forgot to tell us why.
Ogden NashAnd then forgot to tell us why.
Source: The Fly
Great fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite ’em, And little fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum. And the great fleas themselves, in turn, have greater fleas to go on; While these again have greater still, and greater still, and so on.
Augustus De MorganHappiness is a butterfly.
Happiness is like a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.
Nathaniel HawthorneHaste is good only for catching flies.
Have butterflies in one's stomach.
To have a nervous feeling in one's stomach. Being in love.Have patience, fleas, the night is long!
He avenged himself on fleas, and burned up his bed.
He beat the creature off with his hands - it was trying to poison him to keep him quiet, as small spiders do to flies - until he remembered his sword and drew it out.
J.R.R. TolkienSource: The Hobbit - Chapter 8 - Flies and Spiders
About Bilbo.
He can see a louse as far away as China but is not aware of an elephant on his nose.
He can swallow a camel but chokes on a mosquito.
He could hear an insect humming gently somewhere behind the curtain. His eyelids began to droop.
J.K. RowlingSource: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
He does not harm a fly.
He is kind and gentleHe dreads a moth who has been stung by a wasp.
He flies into the flame, the summer insect.
He keeps hives and hives of great fierce bees, and lives most on cream and honey.
J.R.R. TolkienSource: The Hobbit - Chapter 7 - Queer Lodgings
Quoted: Gandalf
Talking about Beorn
He remembered something his grandfather had once told him: that butterflies were a good omen. Like crickets, and like grasshoppers; like lizards and four-leaf clovers.
Paulo CoelhoSource: The Alchemist
He sent swarms of flies that devoured them, and frogs that devastated them.
BibleSource: Psalms 78:45
He spoke, and there came swarms of flies, and gnats throughout their country.
BibleSource: Psalms 105:31
He told them tales of bees and flowers, the ways of trees, and the strange creatures of the Forest, about the evil things and good things, things friendly and things unfriendly, cruel things and kind things, and secrets hidden under brambles.
J.R.R. TolkienSource: The Fellowship of the Ring
About Tom Bombadil
He was drawn to her like a moth to a flame.
He was mad as a hornet.
He who cannot pick up an ant, and wants to pick up an elephant will some day see his folly.
He who runs from the white ant may stumble upon the stinging ant.
He who storms in like a whirlwind returns like an ant.
He who would gather honey must bear the sting of the bees.
He would never hurt a fly.
He is a very gentle person.He's a boisterous little boy, but he wouldn't hurt a fly!
J.K. RowlingSource: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
He's an insect.
An insignificant or contemptible person.He's like the master bee that leads forth the swarm.
Hercule Poirot made vague gestures to rid himself of this human cluster of flies.
Agatha ChristieSource: Death on the Nile
His talent was as natural as the pattern that was made by the dust on a butterfly's wings. At one time he understood it no more than the butterfly did and he did not know when it was brushed or marred.
Ernest HemingwayHoney catches more flies than vinegar.
If you are nice to others you can easily get their cooperation.How doth the little busy bee
Improve each shining hour,
And gather honey all the day
From every opening flower!
Isaac WattsImprove each shining hour,
And gather honey all the day
From every opening flower!
Source: Divine Songs
However much the beetle is afraid it will not stop the lizard swallowing it.
Human knowledge will be erased from the world's archives before we possess the last word that a gnat has to say to us.
Henri FabreHungry flies bite sore.
I always felt that insects are the general rule, and everything else is a special case.
Paul BystrakI cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created parasitic wasps with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of caterpillars.
Charles DarwinI cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created the Ichneumonidae with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of caterpillars.
Charles DarwinI detest mosquitoes. One mosquito can keep me 'awaker' than a bad conscience.
Lucy Maud MontgomerySource: Anne of Windy Poplars
Quoted: Anne
I dreamed I was a butterfly, flitting around in the sky; then I awoke. Now I wonder: Am I a man who dreamt of being a butterfly, or am I a butterfly dreaming that I am a man?
Chuang TsuI feel lousy.
I have the brain of a dung beetle. It's full of shit.
MinkukelI only ask to be free. The butterflies are free.
Charles DickensI tell you, Mr. Holmes, this man collects women, and takes a pride in his collection, as some men collect moths or butterflies.
Sir Arthur Conan DoyleSource: The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes
I'll be floating like a butterfly and stinging like a bee.
Muhammad AliI'll NEVER be a butterfly; My mother was a moth.
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Interested in insects? See: Insects for beginners