The honey-bee that wanders all day long
The field, the woodland, and the garden over.
To gather in his fragrant winter store.
Humming in calm content his winter song,
Seeks not alone the rose's glowing breast,
The lily's dainty cup, the violet's lips.
But from all rank and noxious weeds he sips
The single drop of sweetness closely pressed
Within the poison chalice. [ Anne C. Lynch Botta ]

'Tis ever thus: indulgence spoils the base; Raising up pride, and lawless turbulence. Like noxious vapors from the fulsome marsh When morning shines upon it. [ Joanna Baillie ]

Everything runs to excess; every good quality is noxious, if unmixed, and to carry the danger to the edge of ruin, nature causes each man's peculiarity to superabound. [ Emerson ]

As there are some flowers which you should smell but slightly to extract all that is pleasant in them, and which, if you do otherwise, emit what is unpleasant and noxious, so there are some men with whom a slight acquaintance is quite sufficient to draw out all that is agreeable; a more intimate one would be unsatisfactory and unsafe. [ Landor ]