🍯 You Can Catch More Flies with Honey Than Vinegar 🌿
Definition
catch more flies with honey than vinegar, one can: One can accomplish more by being nice than by being nasty. A version of this term appears in Cervantes’s Don Quixote (“Make yourself into honey and the flies will devour you”), and a more precise version appears about 100 years later, in Thomas Fuller’s Gnomologia: “More Flies are taken with a Drop of Honey than a Tun of Vinegar.” It is a proverb in most European languages.
Synonyms
- Attract more with sweet talk: Persuasion through pleasantness.
- Charm instead of chastise: Winning over with kindness.
- Lure with kindness: Using gentleness to attract.
Antonyms
- You get more bees with vinegar: Opposite idea (though not a common phrase).
- Winning through force: Gaining by being tough or stern.
- Barking up the wrong tree: Using the wrong approach.
Similar Terms and Expressions
- Kill them with kindness: Defeat your opponents with sheer niceness.
- A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down: Pleasantness makes difficult truths easier to handle.
- Speak softly and carry a big stick: Be mild in demeanor but assertive when necessary.
Humor-Filled Quotes and Proverbs
- “Flies may be annoying, but honey’s got ’em in their gooey grips! Vinegar—just giving sour pouts.”
- “Proverbially speaking, honey ain’t messing around. Vinegar? Just trying too hard.”
- “Ever seen a fly at a vinegar store? Me neither, let’s stick to the sweet talk.”
Literature, Books, Songs, Poetry, and Movies
- Book: How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie (Classic on the power of pleasant engagement)
- Song: Fly Away by Lenny Kravitz (Encourages soaring to new heights, though metaphorically!)
- Poetry: “Touched by An Angel” by Maya Angelou (Celebrates love’s gentle power)
- Movie: Miracle on 34th Street (Kindness wins over sceptics, every Christmas)
### Which phrase implies getting things done through pleasant actions?
- [x] You can catch more flies with honey than vinegar
- [ ] Speaking plants have deeper roots
- [ ] Dancing with llamas helps digestion
- [ ] Sausages cooked in love taste bitter
> **Explanation:** "You can catch more flies with honey than vinegar" is the obvious phrase here. The others? Just some fun nonsense to tickle your humor!
### True or False: "You can catch more flies with honey than vinegar" is a common European proverb.
- [x] True
- [ ] False
> **Explanation:** Absolutely true! This proverb traverses multiple European languages, proving it’s got serious sweet appeal.
### Which of these literary works features an early version of the proverb?
- [x] Don Quixote by Cervantes
- [ ] War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
- [ ] The Odyssey by Homer
- [ ] The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
> **Explanation:** In Cervantes’ *Don Quixote*, an early form of this proverb exists. Good luck finding Don Q without a fly or two nearby!
Fly high with kindness and let the aroma of your sweet personality attract the best in life. - W. T. Wittywords
