See Also: GENTLENESS, SWEETNESS

1. (You’re) as good as an umbrella on a wet day —H. E. Bates
2. As kind as Santa Claus —Oscar Hammerstein II, from lyric for South Pacific
3. As much compassion as a toreador moving in for the final thrust —Marilyn Sharp
4. As occupied with worthy projects as Eleanor Roosevelt —Lisa Harris
5. Doing a favor for a bad man is quite as dangerous as doing an injury to a good one —Plautus
6. Exuding good will like a mortician’s convention in a plague year —Daniel Berrigan
7. Gifts are as the gold which adorns the temple; grace is like the temple that sanctifies the gold —William Burkitt
8. Gifts are like fish hooks —Epigram, c. 65 b.c.
9. Gifts are like hooks —Martial
10. As good as gold —Charles Dickens

    A simile that’s become a common expression. In A Christmas Carol, its most frequently quoted source, it’s a response to the question “And how was Tiny Tim today?” In The Gondoliers, W. S. Gilbert gave it a nice twist with “In the wonder-working days of old, when hearts were twice as good as gold’. In Joseph Heller’s novel Good As Gold it serves as a play on the hero’s name (Bruce Gold).

11. (He’ll be) good as pie —Ring Lardner
12. A good heart … a heart like a house —Irwin Shaw
13. The good is, like nature, an immense landscape in which man advances through centuries of exploration —José Ortega Gassett
14. Good to the core like bananas —Marge Piercy
15. Good will … is like gentle sunshine in early spring. It invigorates and awakens all buds —Berthold Auerbach
16. Great minds, like heaven, are pleased in doing good, though the ungrateful subjects of their favors are barren in return —Nicholas Rowe
17. A hand as liberal as the light of day —William Cowper
18. A heart as big as a bird cage —James B. Hall
19. A heart as big as a mountain —Anon
20. Heart … as great as the world —Ralph Waldo Emerson

    In Emerson’s essay, Greatness, the simile continues with “But there was no room in it to hold the memory of a wrong.”

21. A heart as warm as a desert storm —Ogden Nash
22. A heart like duck soup —Jean Garrigue

    In his short story, The Snowfall, Garrigue elaborates on the duck soup comparison as follows: “She’s the kind to want to stop a car if she hears some animal crying in the woods.”

23. A heart like warm putty —Mary Stewart
24. Heart … soft as any melon —Franklin Pierce
25. He gives up a buck as quickly as he would a tattoo —Anon
26. A helping word to one in trouble is often like a switch on a railroad track … an inch between wreck and smooth-rolling prosperity —Henry Ward Beecher
27. He was like Florence Nightingale —Tennessee Williams, Playboy, April, 1973

    Williams used the Florence Nightingale simile to descibe his agent’s devotion when he was ill.

28. (My mother is) soft as a grape —Rita Mae Brown
29. Kindness as large as a prairie wind —Stephen Vincent Benet
30. Kindness is like a baby; it grows fast —Anon
31. Kindness is like snow; it beautifies everything it covers —Anon caller on night-time radio talk show
32. Kindness, like grain, increases by sowing —H. G. Bohn’s Handbook of Proverbs
33. A kind word is like a Spring day —Russian proverb
34. Made the Good Samaritan look like a cheap criminal —George Ade
35. Mercy among the virtues is like the moon among the stars, not so sparkling and vivid as many, but dispensing a calm radiance that hallows the whole —E. H. Chapin
36. (My mother was as) mild as any saint —Alfred, Lord Tennyson
37. My bounty is as boundless as the sea —William Shakespeare
38. Our bounty, like a drop of water, disappears when diffused too widely —Oliver Goldsmith
39. The place of charity, like that of God, is everywhere —Jaques Benigne Bossuet
40. (She was unsparing of herself, she) poured herself out like cream (into the cups of these dull people) —Sumner Locke Elliott
41. The record of a generous life runs like a vine around the memory of our dead —Robert G. Ingersoll
42. Shone [with kindness] like the best of good deeds —Frank Swinnerton
43. Solicitious as St. Peter —Norman Mailer, about David Susskind
44. A sympathetic heart is like a spring of pure water bursting forth from the mountain side —Anon
45. To do a kindness to a bad man is like sowing our seed in the sea —Phocylides
46. Unselfish as the wind —Ken Kesey
47. We are never like angels till our passion dies —Thomas Dekker

    ‘Never’ is modernized from ‘ne’er.’