Flies

thumb|right|200px|Baby byeHere's a fly,Let us watch him. you and I, How he crawls Up the walls Yet he never falls. Flies are insects of the order Diptera (di = two, and ptera = wings). They possess a pair of wings on the mesothorax and a pair of halteres, derived from the hind wings, on the metathorax. The presence of a single pair of wings distinguishes true flies from other insects with "fly" in their name. Quotes I am perfectly willing to share the room with a fly, as long as he is patrolling that portion of the room I don't occupy. But if he starts that smart-ass fly shit, buzzing my head and repeatedly landing on my arm, he is engaging in high-risk behavior. George Carlin, Brain Droppings (1997). He is an extraordinary animal is the house fly. Go where you will you find him, and so it must have been always. I have seen him enclosed in amber, which is, I was told, quite half a million years old, looking exactly like his descendant of to-day, and I have little doubt but that when the last man lies dying on the earth he will be buzzing round – if this event should happen to occur in summer – watching for an opportunity to settle on his nose. H. Rider Haggard, King Solomon's Mines, Chapter 5, "Our March into the Desert" God in His wisdom made the flyAnd then forgot to tell us why. Ogden Nash, The Fly, reported in John MacKay Shaw, Childhood in Poetry (1967), Volume 3, p. 1856. Everything was giant-sized, as if I were looking through binoculars. "I" was walking up giant stalks. At first I didn't know what they were or what I was, for that matter. The stalks were tall as redwood trees, and suddenly "I" realized that I was an insect of some kind. This was a grass blade. I thought I was a fly in a gigantic forest -- a giant fly, because everything was so large and super-real, and I;m used to thinking of flies as small. But I was an ordinary fly. I realized, and this was what the world looked like! Oddly enough, this made me feel better, I didn't care what I was; as long as I was something. So I felt myself go up the grass blade. It's impossible to verbalize the sensations I had, but I remember being aware of the weight of my wings. They seemed very sturdy and reassuring. Jane Roberts, Psychic Politics: An Aspect Psychology Book, p. 62. King James said to the fly, "Have I three kingdoms, and thou must needs fly into my eye?" John Selden, Table-Talk (1689), ed. Edward Arber (London: Alex. Murray & Son, 1868), p. 102. Flies enter an open mouth. Sumerian proverb, Collection III at The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature, 3rd millennium BCE. A variant is present in Jacula Prudentum (1651) by George Herbert: Into a mouth shut flies flie not. Oh! that the memories, which survive us here,Were half so lovely as these wings of thine!Pure relics of a blameless life, that shineNow thou art gone. Charles Tennyson Turner, "On Finding a Small Fly Crushed in a Book", in Sonnets, Lyrics, and Translations (London: Henry S. King & Co., 1873), p. 41. Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 282. We see spiders, flies, or ants entombed and preserved forever in amber, a more than royal tomb. Francis Bacon, Historia Vitæ et Mortis. It was prettily devised of Æsop: The fly sat upon the axle-tree of the chariot-wheel, and said, What a dust do I raise! Francis Bacon, Of Vain-Glory, attributed to Æsop but found in Fables of Laurentius Abstemius. We see how flies, and spiders, and the like, get a sepulchre in amber, more durable than the monument and embalming of the body of any king. Francis Bacon, Sylvia Sylvarum, Century I, Experiment 100. Haceos miel, y paparos han moscas. Make yourself honey and the flies will devour you. Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote, II. 43. The fly that sips treacle is lost in the sweets. John Gay, The Beggar's Opera, Act II, scene 2, line 35. To a boiling pot flies come not. George Herbert, Jacula Prudentum (1651). I saw a flie within a beadeOf amber cleanly buried. Robert Herrick, The Amber Bead. The Lord shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt. Isaiah, VII. 18. A fly sat on the chariot wheelAnd said "what a dust I raise." Jean de La Fontaine, Fables, Book VII. 9. Phædrus, III. 6. Musca et Mula. Busy, curious, thirsty fly,Drink with me and drink as I!Freely welcome to my cup,Could'st thou sip and sip it up;Make the most of life you may;Life is short and wears away. William Oldys, The Fly. Baby byeHere's a fly,Let us watch him. you and I, How he crawls Up the walls Yet he never falls. Theodore Tilton, Baby Bye. External links Fly fly Category:Insects