| Frank J. Wilstach, comp. A Dictionary of Similes. 1916. | | | | Henry D. Thoreau |
| | Shine bright,
As sun-showers at the break of day. | 1 |
| Busy as the brooks. | 2 |
| Colorless as equal quantity of air. | 3 |
| Deliberately as Nature. | 4 |
| Dry as fossil truths. | 5 |
| As essential to the river as a fish. | 6 |
| Familiar as the sun and moon. | 7 |
| As free as the eagle’s wing. | 8 |
| Too gay … like a pink ribbon on the bonnet of a Puritan woman. | 9 |
| Gleamed like a satin ribbon in the sun, or like the pearly inside of a shell. | 10 |
| Humility like darkness reveals the heavenly lights. | 11 |
| Ignorant as a child. | 12 |
| Indistinct as a camel’s track between Mourzouk and Darfour. | 13 |
| Individuals, like nations, must have suitable broad and natural boundaries, even a considerable neutral ground, between them. | 14 |
| Intangible and indescribable as the tints of morning or evening. | 15 |
| Invaluable as the virtue of conformity in the army and navy. | 16 |
My life is like a stroll upon the beach,
As near the ocean’s edge as I can go. | 17 |
| As naturally as bees swarm and follow their queen. | 18 |
| The finest qualities of our nature, like the bloom on fruits, can be preserved only by the most delicate handling. | 19 |
| Refreshed as by the sight of fresh grass in midwinter or early spring. | 20 |
| The coming of spring is like the creation of Cosmos out of Chaos and the realization of the Golden Age. | 21 |
| Strange as a wild flower. | 22 |
| Whooping like artillery. | 23 |
| Wise as Shakespeare. | 24 | | |
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