Metaphors you’ll like
I recently read a book by Dr. Mardy Grothe,I never metaphor I didn’t Like. It has excellent discussions about metaphor and language which we trial lawyers would benefit from reading. Here are some examples of ones I liked:
You were born an original, so don’t die a copy.”
- Elisabeth Kubler-Ross: People are like stained glass windows. The sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is light from within.
- Plato: As empty vessels make the loudest sound, so they that have the least wit are the greatest babblers
- William Thackeray: The world is a looking glass and gives back to every an the reflection of his own face.
- Mark Twain: Everyone is a moon and has a dark side, which he never shows to anybody.
- When someone pointed out that Winston Churchill’s fly was open, he is reported to has said a dead bird does not leave its nest.
- Churchill also said of Secretary of State Dulles: He is the only bull who brings his own china shop with him.
- Someone said he is like the rooster who thinks the sun comes up to hear him crow.
- Comedian Robin Tyler Fundamentalists are to Christianity what paint by the numbers is to art.
- Frederic Rahael: Awards are like hemorrhoids; in the end, every asshole gets one.
- Someone said George Bush walked to third base and thought he got there by hitting a triple.
- David Syteinberg: Nixon, Ford, Carter, Regan – a Mount Rushmore of incompetence.
- Irving stone about William Jennings Bryan: His mind was like a soup dish, wide and shallow; it could hold a small amount of nearly everything, but the slightest jarring spilled the soup.
British writer William Golding once said in a speech:
“Consider a man riding a bicycle. Whoever he is, we can say three things about him. We know he got on the bicycle and started to move. We know that at some point he will stop and get off. Most important of all, we know that if at any point between the beginning and the end of his journey he stops moving and does not get off the bicycle, he will fall off it. This is a metaphor for the journey through the life of any living thing.”
Muriel Spark: Being over seventy is like being engaged in a war. All our friends are going or gone and we survive amongst the dead and dying as on a battlefield. Pope John 23rd: Men are like wine; some turn to vinegar, but the best improve with age.
Len Deighton: In Mexico, an air conditioner is called a “politician” because it makes a lot of noise, but doesn;’t workThornton Wilder: I do borrow from other writers, shamelessly! I can only say in my defense, as the woman before the judge who was arrestedfor shoplifting anddefended herself by saying: “I do steal, but your honor, only from the very best stores.” .Dwight D. Eisenhower: Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you’re a thousand miles from the corn field.Al Franken: For George Bush to fire Karl Rove would be like Charlie McCarthy firing Edgar Bergen.Thornton Wilder: I do borrow from other writers, shamelessly! I can only say in my defense, as the woman before the judge