Frank J. Wilstach, comp. A Dictionary of Similes. 1916.
Wife
A cigar is like a wife!
Put it up to your lips, and light it;
When you’ve learned to do it right, it
Adds a certain zest to life.
Mind you keep on puffing it,
Or it’s out, and can’t be lit.
Ah, the aroma! Ah, the glow!
Will I have one? Thank you, No.
—Aleister Crowley
Scolding wives, like bad clocks, are seldom in order.
—W. S. Downey
A wife is like an unknown sea;
Least known to him who thinks he knows
Where all the Shores of Promise be,
Where lies the Island of Repose,
And where the rocks that he must flee.
—Josiah Gilbert Holland
A wife, domestic, good, and pure,
Like snail, should keep within her door;
But not, like snail, with silver track,
Place all her wealth upon her back.
—William W. How
A good wife is like the ivy which beautifies the building to which it clings, twining its tendrils more lovingly as time converts the ancient edifice into a ruin.
—Dr. Samuel Johnson
Our wives, like their writings, are never safe except when under lock and key.
—William Wycherley