Contents
-BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
Frank J. Wilstach, comp. A Dictionary of Similes. 1916.
Samuel Butler (1835–1902)
The public ear is like a common; there is not much to be got off it, but that little is for the most part grazed down by geese and donkeys.Ideas are for the most part like bad sixpences and we spend our lives in trying to pass them off on one another.Ideas are like shadows—substantial enough until we try to grasp them.We are like billiard balls in a game played by unskillful players, continually being nearly sent into a pocket, but hardly ever getting right into one, except by a fluke.Sin is like a mountain with two aspects according to whether it is viewed before or after it has been reached: yet both aspects are real.Thoughts are like persons met upon a journey; I think them very agreeable at first but soon find, as a rule, that I am tired of them.The use of truth is like the use of words; both truth and words depend greatly upon custom.Words are like money; there is nothing so useless, unless when in actual use.
