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Home  »  A Dictionary of Similes  »  Speech

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

Speech

Long and curious speeches are as fit for dispatch as a robe, or mantle, with a long train, is for a race.
—Francis Bacon

Considered as the last finish of education, or of human culture, worth and acquirement, the art of speech is noble, and even divine; it is like the kindling of a Heaven’s light to show us what a glorious world exists, and has perfected itself, in a man.
—Thomas Carlyle

As a vessel is known by the sound, whether it be cracked or not, so men are proved by their speeches whether they be wise or foolish.
—Demosthenes

Her artless speech, like chrystal, shows the thing it would hide, but only covers.
—James Sheridan Knowles

Solon used to say that speech was the image of actions;… that laws were like cobwebs,—for that if any trifling or powerless thing fell into them, they held it fast; while if it were something weightier, it broke through them and was off.
—Diogenes Laertius

A printed speech is like a dried flower: the substance, indeed, is there, but the color is faded and the perfume gone.
—Prosper Lorain

Speech is like the cloth of Arras, opened and put abroad, whereby the imagery doth appear in figure, while in thoughts they lie but in packs.
—Plutarch

His speech was like a tangled chain; nothing impaired, but all disordered.
—William Shakespeare

Swift with speech like fire in fiery lands
To melt the steel’s edge in the headsman’s hands.
—Algernon Charles Swinburne

Speech was like to tapestry; and like it, when it was spread it showed its figures, but when it was folded up, hid and spoiled them.
—Themistocles