Frank J. Wilstach, comp. A Dictionary of Similes. 1916.
Hope
Our hopes, like towering falcons, aim at objects in an airy height:
The little pleasure of the game is afar off to view the flight.
—Anonymous
It is equally precarious to moor a ship by an insufficient anchor, and to ground hope on a capricious temper.
—Demophilus
A woman’s hopes are woven as sunbeams; a shadow annihilates them.
—George Eliot
Hope, like the glimmering taper’s light
Adorns and cheers the way;
And still, as darker grows the night,
Emits a brighter ray.
—Oliver Goldsmith
Our hopes, like withered leaves, fall fast.
—Henry W. Longfellow
As froth on the face of the deep,
As foam on the crest of the sea,
As dreams at the waking of sleep,
As gourd of a day and a night,
As harvest that no man shall reap,
As vintage that never shall be,
Is hope if it cling not aright,
O my God unto Thee.
—Christina Georgina Rossetti
Hope is like a harebell trembling from its birth.
—Christina Georgina Rossetti
Who builds his hope in air of your fair looks,
Lives like a drunken sailor on a mast;
Ready, with every nod, to tumble down
Into the fatal bowels of the deep.
—William Shakespeare
Hope is like the sun, which, as we journey towards it, casts the shadow of our burden behind us.
—Samuel Smiles
Hope has left you like a painted dream.
—Joseph Stansbury
As some adventurous flower, on savage craig-side grown,
Seems nourished hour by hour from its wild self alone,
So lives inveterate Hope, on her own hardihood.
—William Watson