Frank J. Wilstach, comp. A Dictionary of Similes. 1916.
Talk
Fish are talkative in comparison.
—Anonymous
Talkative as a magpie.
—Anonymous
Like a bagpipe, he never talks till his belly’s full.
—Anonymous
All talking and no listening, after the manner of a Woman’s Rights Convention.
—J. H. Bartlett’s Dictionary of Americanisms
Talk like poor Poll [Goldsmith].
—David Garrick
Talking is like playing on the harp; there is as much in laying the hand on the strings to stop a vibration as in twanging them to bring out their music.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes
Writing or printing is like shooting with a rifle; you may hit your reader’s mind or miss it;—but talking is like playing at a mark with the pipe of an engine; if it is within reach, and you have time enough, you can’t help hitting it.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes
There are men of esprit who are excessively exhausting to some people. They are the talkers that have what may be called jerky minds. Their thoughts do not run in the natural order of sequence. They say bright things on all possible subjects, but their zigzags rack you to death. After a jolting half-hour with one of these jerky companions, talking with a dull friend affords great relief. It is like taking the cat in your lap after holding a squirrel.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes
Talk without truth is hollow brass; talk without love is like the tinkling cymbal, and when it does not tinkle it jingles, and when it does not jingle, it jars.
—Mrs.
—Jameson
He talks as a piano-organ grinds out music—steadily, strenuously, tirelessly.
—Jerome K. Jerome
Talking away like a mill-clapper.
—Sarah Orne Jewett
Talks like music set on fire.
—Richard Le Gallienne
His talk is like a stream which runs
With rapid change from rocks to roses;
It slipped from politics to puns;
It passed from Mahomet to Moses;
Beginning with the laws that keep
The planets in their radiant courses,
And ending with some precept deep
For dressing eels or shoeing horses.
—Winthrop Mackworth Praed
Great talkers are like broken pitchers, everything runs out of them.
—Persian Proverbs
Talks like a knell, and his hum a battery.
—William Shakespeare
A talkative person is like an English sparrow,—a bird that cannot sing, and will, and ought to be persuaded not to try to sing.
—Henry Van Dyke