Frank J. Wilstach, comp. A Dictionary of Similes. 1916.
Language
Languages, like our bodies, are in a perpetual flux, and stand in the need of recruits to supply those words that are continually falling, through disuse.
—C. C. Felton
Written language is like a mirror which it is necessary to have in order that man know himself and be sure that he exists.
—Alphonse M. L. Lamartine
Language rises like a spring among the mountains; it increases into a rivulet; then it becomes a river (the water is still unpolluted), but when the river has passed through a town the water must be filtered. And Milton was mentioned as the first filter, the first stylist.
—George Moore
Language is like amber in its efficacy to circulate the electric spirit of truth; it is also like amber in embalming and preserving the relics of ancient wisdom, although one is not seldom puzzled to decipher its contents.
—George Augustus Sala