Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.

-Ali, Muhammad formerly  Cassius Clay
c.1964  Of his boxing style. Quoted in G Sullivan Cassius Clay (1964), ch.8.

O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?

-Bible (NewTestament)
Corinthians15:55.

A fly, Sir, may sting a stately horse and make him wince; but one is but an insect, and the other is a horse still.

-Johnson, Samuel known as Dr Johnson
  Of Edwards's criticism of  Thomas Warburton. Quoted in James Boswell The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), vol.1.

What thing is love for (well I wot) love is a thing. It is a prick, it is a sting, It is a pretty, pretty thing; It is a fire, it is a coal Whose flame creeps in at every hole.

-Peele, George
c.1591 The Hunting of Cupid.

Alas! so all things now do hold their peace, Heaven and earth disturbed in no thing† Calm is the sea, the waves work less and less; So am not I whom love, alas, doth wring, Bringing before my face the great increase Of my desires, whereat I weep and sing, In joy and woe, as in a doubtful ease. For my sweet thoughts sometime do pleasure bring, But by and by the cause of my disease Gives me a pang that inwardly doth sting, When that I think what grief it is again To live and lack the thing should rid my pain.

-Surrey, Henry Howard, Earl of
  'Alas! so all things now do hold their peace'.