Frank J. Wilstach, comp. A Dictionary of Similes. 1916.

Plutarch

Expressed their alacrity, like horses full of fire and neighing for the race.

We ought to regard books as we do sweetmeats, not wholly to aim at the pleasantest, but chiefly to respect the wholesomest; not forbidding either, but approving the latter most.

Themistocles said that a man’s discourse was like to a rich Persian carpet, the beautiful figures and patterns of which can be shown only by spreading and extending it out; when it is contracted and folded up, they are obscured and lost.

Good fame is like fire: when you have kindled it, you may easily preserve it; but if you once extinguish it, you will not easily kindle it again.

A friend should be like money, tried before being required, not found faulty in our need.

Lamentation is the only musician that always, like a screech-owl, alights and sits on the roof of an angry man.

Pride is like vapour which ascendeth high, and presently vanishes away.

Good repute is like fire: once kindled, it is easily kept alive; but when extinguished, not easily lighted again.

Speech is like the cloth of Arras, opened and put abroad, whereby the imagery doth appear in figure, while in thoughts they lie but in packs.

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