See Also: BEHAVIOR

1. Cagey as a feral cat —John Yount
2. Careful as a cat walking on eggshells —American colloquialism, attributed to New England
3. Carries it [a plant] as if it’s made of Steuben glass —Ann Beattie
4. Carry … like a hot tureen —Eudora Welty
5. Caution flowed over the [telephone] wire like a wave —Robert M. Coates
6. Caution, like that of a wild beast that is fierce but feeble or like that of an insect whose little fragment of earth has given way, and made it pause in a palsy of distrust —George Eliot
7. Cautious as a burglar walking over a tin roof in cowhide boots —Wallace Irwin
8. Cautious as a good housekeeper —Honore de Balzac
9. Cautious as a tightrope walker with a severe itch —Anon

   This is yet another perversion of the popular “Busy as a one-armed paperhanger” comparison.

   See Also: BUSYNESS

10. Cautious as his gray suit —John Dancy, NBC-TV, about Robert Gates at CIA confirmation hearings, April, 1987
11. Cautiously, like a man handling sixteenth-century lace —Roald Dahl
12. Choosy as a stud in a harem —Mike Sommer
13. Discreet … as if you’re trying to tail yourself —William Mcllvanney
14. Going as if he trod upon eggs —Robert Burton
15. Like a weight-watcher at the feast of San Gennaro, I just nibbled a bit —Lenoard M. Heine, Jr., commenting on his cautious stock purchases when others were investing freely, quoted Wall Street Journal column by Vartanig G. Vartan, January 19, 1987
16. Peeped out carefully like a mole from its hole —Derek Walcott
17. Picked up the pieces as carefully as if they were cuttings from the Koh-i-noor —Israel Zangwill
18. Picking his words like a man making his way through a minefield —Donald Seaman
19. Progressed like a man tracing and following a chalk line —Frank Swinnerton
20. A prudent man is like a pin; his head prevents him from going too far —Anon
21. Should be used with discretion, like cayenne pepper —Anon
22. So wary that he sleeps like a hare, with his eyes open —Thomas Fuller
23. Timid as hares —Anton Chekhov
24. To take all you want is never as good as to stop when you should —Lao Tzu
25. (We must) treat him like Dresden china —Nikolai V. Gogol
26. Wary as a blind horse —Thomas Fuller
27. Wary as a pickpocket’s confidence that the policeman on the beat will stay bought —H. L. Mencken

    This is slightly changed from Mencken’s original words which identified the pickpocket as an American.

28. Watched what he said as carefully as if he were in court —John Updike