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

Love (Verb)

Love as a cat loves mustard.
—Anonymous

Loved as a guardian angel.
—Anonymous

As reeds and willows love the water side,
So love loves with the idle to abide.
—Francis Beaumont

Loved as patriots.
—Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Love … dearly, like pig and pie.
—Robert Burton

Love as a Welshman does toasted cheese.
—John Day

Love as the dog does a whip.
—John Ray (Handbook of Proverbs, 1670)

Love as the devil loves holy water.
—Jonathan Swift

Love him as Frenchmen love Napoleon.
—Algernon Charles Swinburne

My spirit loved and loves him yet,
Like some poor girl whose heart is set
On one whose rank exceeds her own.
—Alfred Tennyson