#simi

Old Marley was as dead as a doornail. Mind! I don't mean to say that, of my own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about a doornail. I might have been inclined, myself, to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade. But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile; and my unhallowed hands shall not disturb it, or the Country's done for. You will therefore permit me to repeat, emphatically, that Marley was as dead as a doornail. ↗

— Charles Dickens

#nails #similes #well-worn-phrases #christmas

I renounce the higher harmony altogether. It's not worth the tears of that one tortured child who...prayed..with...unexpiated tears to 'dear,kind God! ↗

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

#pessimism #philosophic-reflection #religion #theology #life

To argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, and whose philosophy consists in holding humanity in contempt, is like administering medicine to the dead, or endeavoring to convert an atheist by scripture. ↗

— Thomas Paine

#simile #stubbornness #scripture

Normal, in our house, is like a blanket too short for a bed--sometimes it covers you just fine, and other times it leaves you cold and shaking; and worst of all, you never know which of the two it's going to be. ↗

— Jodi Picoult

#uncertainty #sisters

Looking for an entirely reliable informant is like looking for a chaste mistress. ↗

— Cassandra Clare

#information

What a pessimist you are!" exclaimed Candide. "That is because I know what life is," said Martin. ↗

— Voltaire

#pessimism #satire #life

Life is a huge farce, and the advantage of possessing a sense of humour is that it enables one to defy fate with mocking laughter. ↗

— George R. Gissing

#life #pessimism #humor

What New England is, is a state of mind, a place where dry humor and perpetual disappointment blend to produce an ironic pessimism that folks from away find most perplexing ↗

— Willem Lange

#dry-humor #humor #new-england #perplexing #pessimism

Love is like the human appendix. You take it for granted while it's there, but when it's suddenly gone you're forced to endure horrible pain that can only be alleviated through drugs. ↗

— Reverend Jen

#drugs #humor #love #simile #humor

.. a simile is not a lie, unless it is a bad simile. ↗

— Mark Haddon (Author)

#rhetoric #simile #humor