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Quotations about Ladybugs
O lady-bird, O lady-bird,
With your red coat spotted black!
And your flutterings of gauzy wings,
Bringing the summer back!
And a better hope to me
Of a summer I shall see
In this heart, with all your beauty stirr'd,
O lady-bird, my lady-bird!
~Thomas Ashe, 1800s
This little insect of the poets... ~G. P. Disosway, 1800s
Ladybugs all dressed in red
Strolling through the flower bed.
If I were tiny just like you
I'd creep among the flowers too!
~Maria Fleming
How brave a ladybug must be!
Each drop of rain is big as she.
Can you imagine what you'd do,
if raindrops fell as big as you?
~Aileen Lucia Fisher (1906–2002)
The lady bug is the most genteel vermin in market. They are spotted red and black for color, and don't look unlike a drop of red sealing wax. They hang around gardens and cucumber vines in the spring of the year. The lady bug is probably useful, but Webster's unabridged don't tell us for what. Whenever I come across any bug, that I don't know what they was built for, I don't blame the bug. I have great faith in anything that creeps, crawls, or even wiggles, and though I ain't been able to satisfy myself all about the usefulness of bed bugs, mosquitos, and striped snakes, I have faith that Divine Providence did not make them in vain. Faith is knowledge of the highest order. ~Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw, 1818–1885) [A little altered and spelling standardized.
A brood of little ladybugs is wintering with me... one has just wandered across the paper: take it for a good omen! ~Rainer Maria Rilke, letter to Lou Andreas-Salomé, 1921
In old times the lady-bird was believed to live in the sun, and the German children still have a rhyme telling it to fly away up to heaven and bring back the sunshine; and they believe that if they were to kill one of these insects the sun would not shine the next day. ~John Denison Champlin, 1800s
We talked this afternoon of worlds
That herd within the sky;
Of all the majesty and reach
Of stellar space, till I
Was grateful to the ladybug
That crawled across my dress,
Just for its foolish speckled back,
And for its littleness.
~Ethel A. Turner, c.1921
Plenty of ladybirds, plenty of hops. ~English proverb
A sweet child of nature on a green turf lay smiling,
With eyes like the blue sky and bright golden hair;
And grasping the wild flow'rs gather'd from fairy bowers,
When out crept a lady-bird with wings light as air.
It sat on her tiny hand as if 'twere a throne...
~Mrs. Joseph Rogers, "Lady-bird, Lady-bird," c.1874
...and as I removed the leaves, I saw a most wonderful congregation of these little Ladybugs — the ground was literally red with them for quite a distance around... ~Author unknown, c.1888
Lady-bird! Lady-bird! pretty one, stay:
Come sit on my finger, so happy and gay.
With me shall no mischief betide thee;
No harm would I do thee, no foeman is near:
I only would gaze on thy beauties so dear,
Those beautiful winglets beside thee.
~Author unknown, 1800s
Fly back again, back again, Lady-bird dear!
Thy neighbors will welcome thee merrily here...
~Author unknown, 1800s
My gracious Lord, we give you thanks for the beauty of the earth and sky and sea, for the songs of birds and the loveliness of flowers, for the wonders of your animal kingdom... in the light of the eye of a camel is reflected the glory of God, in the work of a ladybug is the soul of an artist. ~Ethel Pochocki (1925–2010), The Blessing of the Beasts, 2007 [Friar
I would not hurt it for all the world.
Its prettiness says, spare me, and it bears
Armour so beautiful upon its back,
I could not injure it to be a queen.
Look... its coat is scarlet dropp'd with jet,
Its eyes pure ivory.
~James Hurdis (1763–1801)
Hurt no living thing:
Ladybird, nor butterfly,
Nor moth with dusty wing...
~Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830–1894)
The little Wren is very small,
The Humming-bird is less;
The Lady-bird is least of all,
And beautiful in dress.
~Adelaide O'Keeffe, "Beasts, Birds, and Fishes," c.1831
"I see by the latest copy of Insect Fashions that polka dots are the newest thing..." said Mr.
O lady-bird, O lady-bird,
With the summer coming fresh!
And the April hopes and buttercups,
Knitting finely, in a mesh
Of sunny-shining rays,
For the samite-robèd days,
For my heart with all your beauty stirr'd,
O lady-bird, my lady-bird!
~Thomas Ashe, 1800s
Back o'er thy shoulders throw those ruby shards,
With many a tiny coal-black freckle deckt,
My watchful look thy loitering saunter guards,
My ready hand thy footstep shall protect...
So shall the fairy-train by glow-worm light
With rainbow tints thy folding pennons fret,
Thy scaly breast in deeper azure dight,
Thy burnish'd armour speck with glossier jet...
~Robert Southey (1774–1843), "To the Burnie Bee"
Hobnelia, seated in a dreary vale,
In pensive mood rehears'd her piteous tale...
'This ladyfly I take from off the grass,
Whose spotted back might scarlet red surpass.
Fly, lady-bird; north, south, or east, or west,
Fly where the man is found that I love best.'
~John Gay (1685–1732)
Let your imagination... fly like the lady-bird, "north, south, and east, and west," but take care that it always comes home to rest. ~Robert Southey (1774–1843)
In Westphalia, Germany, little girls set a lady-bird on the end of their forefinger and ask it in rhyme when they will be married; in one year? two years? three years? etc.; and they grow very impatient if the insect lets them count too high before it flies away. ~John Denison Champlin, 1800s
Ladybird, Ladybird, whither fly you,
To rest on the Rose or to sip of the Dew?
Ladybird, Ladybird, come to my Bower;
It will shade you from Sun and defend you from Shower.
~Author unknown, 1800s
Ladybugs are possibly the only non-controversial subject left in the world; you can start a ladybug conversation with a total stranger without getting hit in the mouth. ~Charles Harper, 1974, charleyharperartstudio.com
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published 2005 Sep 9
revised 2021 Mar 4
last saved 2024 Apr 12
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