Frank J. Wilstach, comp. A Dictionary of Similes. 1916. C. N. Bovée
Affliction, like the iron-smith, shapes as it smites. 1 Weakness ineffectually seeks to disguise itself,—like a drunken man trying to show how sober he is. 2 Women’s love, like lichens on a rock, will still grow where even charity can find no soil to nurture itself. 3 Men, like musical instruments, seem made to be played upon. 4 Successful minds work like a gimlet, to a single point. 5 Nations, like individuals, are powerful in the degree that they command the sympathies of their neighbors. 6 The passions are like fire, useful in a thousand ways and dangerous only in one, through their excess. 7 Pride is like the beautiful acacia, that lifts its head proudly above its neighbor plants—forgetting that it too, like them, has its roots in the dirt. 8 Repel one like a cudgel. 9 Truth, like the sun, submits to be obscured; but, like the sun, only for a time. 10 Great warriors, like great earthquakes, are principally remembered for the mischief they have done. 11
