Frank J. Wilstach, comp. A Dictionary of Similes. 1916.
Life
Life is like a tale ended ere ’tis told.
—Thomas Bailey Aldrich
In life, as in chess, one’s own pawns block one’s way. A man’s very wealth, ease, leisure, children, books, which should help him to win, more often checkmate him.
—Charles Buxton
Life, as a windmill, grinds the bread of Life.
—Lord De Tabley
This Life, which seems so fair, is like a bubble blown up in the air by sportive children’s breath.
—William Drummond
Life is like a game of whist. I don’t enjoy the game much; but I like to play my cards well, and see what will be the end of it.
—George Eliot
Life is a train of moods like a string of beads, and as we pass through them, they prove to be many-colored lenses which paint the world their own hue, and each shows only what lies in its focus.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson
Man’s life is like unto a winter’s day,
Some break their fast and so depart away,
Others stay dinner then depart full fed;
The longest age but sups and goes to bed.
Oh, reader, then behold and see,
As we are now so must you be.
—Bishop Henshaw
Life is like yon fisher’s boat
Gay she quits the friendly shore.
—William H. Leatham
Life is, after all, like baccarat or billiards…. It is no use winning unless there be a gallery to look on and applaud.
—Ouida
Like a morning dream, life becomes more and more bright the longer we live, and the reason of everything appears more clear.
—John Paul Richter
Life, like the water of the seas, freshens only when it ascends upwards.
—John Paul Richter
After all, life is like soda-water. Childhood, effervescence corked down and wired; manhood, some sparkle, more vapidity; old age, empty bottle, cart it away with the rubbish.
—Thomas William Robertson
Life is like a beautiful and winding lane, on either side bright flowers, and beautiful butterflies, and tempting fruits, which we scarcely pause to admire and to taste, so eager are we to hasten to an opening which we imagine will be more beautiful still. By degrees as we advance, the trees grow bleak; the flowers and butterflies fail, the fruits disappear, and we find we have arrived to reach a desert waste.
—George Augustus Sala
Our life is like a journey on which, as we advance, the landscape takes a different view from that which it presented at first, and changes again, as we come nearer.
—Arthur S. Schopenhauer
A wise man is never disappointed. Man’s life is like a game at tables; if at any time the cast you most shall need does not come up, let that which comes instead of it be mended by your play.
—Thomas Shadwell
Life, like a dome of many-colored glass,
Stains the white radiance of eternity.
—Percy Bysshe Shelley
The vanity of human life is like a river, constantly passing away, and yet constantly coming on.
—Jonathan Swift
Life is like wine; who would drink it pure, must not draw it to the dregs.
—Sir William Temple
When all is done, Human Life is, at the greatest and the best, but like a forward Child, that must be Play’d with and Humor’d a little to keep it quiet till it falls asleep, and then the Care is over.
—Sir William Temple
My life is like a stroll upon the beach,
As near the ocean’s edge as I can go.
—Henry D. Thoreau
My life is like the summer rose
That opens in the morning sky,
But, ere the shades of evening close,
Is scattered on the ground—to die.
—Richard Henry Wilde