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

Useless

Useless as a chimney until you light your fire.
—Anonymous

Useless as a gun without a trigger.
—Anonymous

Useless as a disabled pitcher.
—Anonymous

As useless as a monkey’s fat.
—Anonymous

Useless as a sedan chair on a railway.
—Anonymous

Useless as a shoulder of mutton to a sick horse.
—Anonymous

Useless as whispering in the ear of a corpse.
—Anonymous

Useless as a clock without wheels.
—Anonymous

Useless as to stop up a rathole with an apple dumpling.
—Anonymous

Useless as whistling psalms to a dead horse.
—J. R. Bartlett’s Dictionary of Americanisms

Useless as a candle in a skull.
—William Cowper

Useless as a buttonhole without a button.
—Henry Irving Dodge

Useless as for her hand to try to grasp a shadow.
—George Eliot

Useless as to enlarge upon the obvious.
—Epictetus

Useless as the leg of a man with a sprained ankle.
—Richard Le Gallienne

Useless as a skyrocket without powder.
—Charles Henderson

Whose talk is as busily useless as the babble of a stream that hurries by a ruined mill.
—Robert G. Ingersoll

Useless as the canal constructor without water.
—George Bernard Shaw

Useless extra, like a sixth finger.
—Anton Chekhov

Useless as perfumery to a hog.
—Leo Tolstoy