Wisdom, though richer than Peruvian mines.
And sweeter than the sweet ambrosial hive.
What is she, but the means of happiness?
That unobtain'd, than folly more a fool. [ Young ]

The little bee returns with evening's gloom,
To join her comrades in the braided hive,
Where, housed beside their mighty honeycomb,
They dream their polity shall long survive. [ Charles (Tennyson) Turner ]

Let us fill urns with rose-leaves in our May,
And hive the thrifty sweetness for December. [ Holland ]

Her words were like a stream of honey fleeting.
That which doth softly trickle from the hive,
Able to melt the hearer's heart unweeting,
And eke to make the dead again alive. [ Spenser ]

Look on the bee upon the wing among flowers;
How brave, how bright his life! then mark him hiv'd,
Cramp'd, cringing in his self-built, social cell,
Thus it is in the world-hive; most where men
Lie deep in cities as in drifts. [ Bailey ]

He is not worthy of the honeycomb That shuns the hive because the bees have stings. [ William Shakespeare ]

Most plagiarists, like the drone, have neither taste to select, industry to acquire, nor skill to improve, but impudently pilfer the honey ready prepared, from the hive. [ Colton ]