Frank J. Wilstach, comp. A Dictionary of Similes. 1916.
Pun
People that make puns are like wanton boys that put coppers on the railroad tracks. They amuse themselves and other children but their little trick may upset a freight train of conversation for the sake of a battered witticism.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes
A pun is somewhat like a cherry: though there may be a slight outward indication of partition—of a duplicity of meaning—yet no gentleman need make two bites at it against his own pleasure.
—Thomas Hood
A pun is like a stumbling-block, that a man cannot always avoid without hitting his shins against it, but the sooner he clears himself from it the better.
—James Quin
Pun … where a word, like the tongue of a jackdaw, speaks twice as much by being split.
—Jonathan Swift