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

Julius Charles Hare

Discipline, like the bridle in the hand of a good rider, should exercise its influence without appearing to do so, should be ever active, both as a support and as a restraint, yet seem to lie easily in hand. It must always be ready to check or pull up, as occasion may require; and only when the horse is a runaway should the action of the curb be perceptible.

A critic should be a pair of snuffers. He is oftener an extinguisher; and not seldom a thief.

It is with great men as with high mountains. They oppress us with awe when we stand under them: they disappoint our insatiable imaginations when we are nigh, but not quite close to them: and then, the further we recede from them, the more astonishing they appear; until … they at one moment seem miraculously lifted above earth, and the next strike our fancies as let down from heaven.

Some hearts are like a melting peach, but with a larger, coarser, harder stone.

The intellect of the wise is like glass: it admits the light of heaven, and reflects it.

The mind is like a trunk. If well packed, it holds almost everything; if ill packed, next to nothing.

There is as much difference between good poetry and fine verses, as between the smell of a flower garden, and a perfumer’s shop.

A statesman, we are told, should follow public opinion. Doubtless … as a coachman follows his horses; having firm hold on the reins, and guiding them.

They think they pass themselves off unnoticed, like the Irishman’s bad guinea, in a handful of halfpences.

Homebred wits are like home-made wines, sweet, luscious, spiritless, without body, and ill to keep.

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