In argument similes are like songs in love; they describe much, but prove nothing.
Similes prove nothing, but yet greatly lighten and relieve the tedium of argument.
Thou hast the most unsavoury similes.
Coffee falls into the stomach. . . ideas begin to move, things remembered arrive at full gallop. . . the shafts of wit start up like sharp-shooters, similes arise, the paper is covered with ink. . .
This coffee falls into your stomach, and straightway there is a general commotion. Ideas begin to move like the battalions of the Grand Army of the battlefield, and the battle takes place. Things remembered arrive at full gallop, ensuing to the wind. The light cavalry of comparisons deliver a magnificent deploying charge, the artillery of logic hurry up with their train and ammunition, the shafts of with start up like sharpshooters. Similes arise, the paper is covered with ink; for the struggle commences and is concluded with torrents of black water, just as a battle with powder.
Each reader discovers for himself that, with respect to the simpler features of nature, succeeding poets have done little else than copy his similes.
Metaphors and Similes are the beginning of the democratic system of envy.
Every one is fond of comparing himself to something great and grandiose, as Louis XIV likened himself to the sun, and others have had like similes. I am more humble. I am a mere street scavenger (chiffonier) of science. With my hook in my hand and my basket on my back, I go about the streets of science, collecting what I find.
A plot without action is like pasta without garlic, like Dolly Parton without cleavage, and like a writer without his similes.
