Frank J. Wilstach, comp. A Dictionary of Similes. 1916.
Name
Women’s good name, O my lady, is like curded milk, the least dust fouleth it; and like glass, which, if it be cracked, may not be mended.
—Arabian Nights
A good name is like a precious ointment; it filleth all around about, and will not easily away; for the odors of ointments are more durable than those of flowers.
—Francis Bacon
Names like jewels flashing the night of time.
—Joseph Conrad
A man’s name is not like a mantle, which merely hangs about him, and which one perchance may safely twitch and pull, but a perfectly fitting garment, which like the skin has grown over and over him, at which one cannot rake and scrape without injuring the man himself.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
A great name without merit is like an epitaph on a coffin.
—Madeleine d’Arsont, dame de Puisieux
A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one’s birth.
—Old Testament
A good name is like sweet-smelling ointment.
—Old Testament