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

Henry D. Thoreau

Shine bright,
As sun-showers at the break of day.

Busy as the brooks.

Colorless as equal quantity of air.

Deliberately as Nature.

Dry as fossil truths.

As essential to the river as a fish.

Familiar as the sun and moon.

As free as the eagle’s wing.

Too gay … like a pink ribbon on the bonnet of a Puritan woman.

Gleamed like a satin ribbon in the sun, or like the pearly inside of a shell.

Humility like darkness reveals the heavenly lights.

Ignorant as a child.

Indistinct as a camel’s track between Mourzouk and Darfour.

Individuals, like nations, must have suitable broad and natural boundaries, even a considerable neutral ground, between them.

Intangible and indescribable as the tints of morning or evening.

Invaluable as the virtue of conformity in the army and navy.

My life is like a stroll upon the beach,
As near the ocean’s edge as I can go.

As naturally as bees swarm and follow their queen.

The finest qualities of our nature, like the bloom on fruits, can be preserved only by the most delicate handling.

Refreshed as by the sight of fresh grass in midwinter or early spring.

The coming of spring is like the creation of Cosmos out of Chaos and the realization of the Golden Age.

Strange as a wild flower.

Whooping like artillery.

Wise as Shakespeare.