Full Idea
Virtues play a necessary part in the life of human beings as do stings in the life of a bee.
Gist of Idea
Virtues are as necessary to humans as stings are to bees
Source
Philippa Foot (Natural Goodness [2001], 2)
Book Reference
Foot,Philippa: 'Natural Goodness' [OUP 2003], p.35
A Reaction
This presumably rests on the Aristotelian idea that humans are essentially social (as opposed to solitary humans who choose to be social, perhaps in a contractual way, as Plato implies).