Honey - Miscellaneous Proverbs

Honey sometimes turns sour. (The end of good luck.)
The diligence of the hive produces the wealth of honey.
A drop of honey will not sweeten the ocean.
Don't have honey watched by a bear (make a goat the gardener).
If you want to gather honey, don't kick over the beehive. (Abraham Lincoln.)
Honey young, wine old.
Every bee's honey is sweet.
Honey you swallow, gall you spit.
If you are too sweet, the bees will eat you.
Make honey out of yourself and the flies will devour you (Cervantes—Don Quixote. II. 43.)
Where there is honey, the bears come uninvited.
The bear dreams of honey.
To your own honey the devil puts one spoon; to strange honeys, two spoons.
Luxury has honey in her mouth, gall in her heart, and sting in her tail.
Where bees are, there is honey.
Where a bee sucks honey, the spider sucks poison.
A still bee gathers no honey. Old bees yield no honey. Dead bee maketh no honey.
No bees, no honey; no work, no money.
Who is afraid of the sting never earns honey.
If you love honey, don't fear the sting.
Honey is not far from the sting.
Who collects honey and roses must bear the stings and the thorns.
Wit is honey lent, without the sting. (Tennyson.)

The following are some of the many foreign sayings and proverbs associated with honey:

LATIN

Where there is honey, there are bees. (Ubi mel, ibi apes) Plautus. Deadly poisons are concealed under sweet honey. (Impia sub dulci melle venena latent.) (Ovid—Amorum I. 8.)

Where honey, there is gall. (Ubi mel, ibi fel.) This was, by the way, the favorite saying of Martin Luther.

Honey in mouth, sting in tail. (In ore mel, in caude aculeum habet.)

GERMAN

Who shares honey with a bear, gets the least of it.
Honey is not meant for an ass.
Honey is too good for the bear.
Honey is sweet, but the bee stings.
Bees have honey in their mouths, but stings in their tails.
Bees bring honey, honey brings bees.

FRENCH

A drop of honey catches more flies than a barrel of vinegar.
A little gall spoils a great deal of honey.
A honey tongue and a heart of gall. (Bouche de miel, coeur de fiel.)
Who deals with honey will sometimes be licking his fingers.
Who has no honey in his pot—let him have it in his mouth.
It is dearly bought honey, that is licked off a thorn. (Cher est le miel qu'on lèche surepines.)

SPANISH

Michael, Michael, you have no bees and yet you sell honey.

ITALIAN

Rub yourself with honey and the flies will eat you. (Fatevi miele, the le mosche vi mangieramo.)

RUSSIAN

If you make a honey barrel out of yourself, everybody wants to eat you.

ARABIAN

Honey in the hive of good fortune quickly sours. A lazy man is never fed on honey. Lick up the honey and ask no questions.

CHINESE

Bees make honey and men eat it.

When the nest is destroyed others get the honey.

PERSIAN