Emotions
Emotions
See Also: ANXIETY, CHEERFULNESS, DEJECTION, ENVY, GLOOM, GRIEF, HAPPINESS, HATE, LONELINESS, LOVE, SADNESS, TENSION, WEARINESS
- Compulsion is a mirror in which he who looks for long will see his inner self endeavoring to commit suicide —Kahlil Gibran
- Emotional antagonisms that lay in us like surly dogs at the end of a chain, ready to leap up and growl at a step —Wallace Stegner
- Emotional … like a third-rate opera singer —Fred Mustard Stewart
- Emotions buzzed and throbbed … like a pent-up bee —Elizabeth Bowen
- Emotions got cut off … like a broken string of beads —Susan Fromberg Schaeffer
- Emotions … swarm in my head like a hive of puzzled bees —Gertrude Atherton
- Emotions to be appropriate … may be measuring them like potatoes, but it is better than slopping them about like water from a pail —E. M. Forster
- Emotion akin to a physical blow —Henrietta Weigel
- Fear and anger boiled up in my head like liquid air —Ross Macdonald
- Feeling full of wonder and illusion —like a Columbus or a pilgrim seeing the continent of his dreams take shape in the dusk for the first time —Richard Ford
The feelings thus described are experienced as a plane comes in for a landing.
- Feelings bubbled in him like water from an underground spring —Paige Mitchell
- Feelings … call, like a buzzing of flies in autumn air —Wallace Stevens
- Feelings cross our flesh along nets of nerves, like a pattern of lightning flashes —Marguerite Yourcenar
- Feelings here slice right through like speed skates —Jill Robinson
Robinson thus described the work of poet Amy Rothholz, building on her simile with, “Racing by with fierce, original passion.” The poet’s publisher extracted the simile from Robinson’s review to feature in an ad for the book.
- Feelings..jumbled together like ravelled wool —Frank Swinnerton
- Feel mushy and wet, like a pile of leaves after they have been rained on —Daphne Merkin
- Feels herself curling up like a jaundiced leaf —Alice Munro
- Feel the magic building like a gathering storm —W. P. Kinsella
- Felt as small and vulnerable as a calf on its first day of life —Linda West Eckhardt
- Felt crazy, stupid, as though, having believed a burglar was rummaging through the house, I had found only the family cat —Kent Nelson
- Felt … inadequate, as if I were a new understudy taking on a role that had been played before, and much more effectively —Alice McDermott
- Felt like a lifeline thrown out to someone —Mike Feder, New York Times, September 7, 1986
Feder, a cafe story teller, thus explained how he began his career by telling stories about his day’s experiences to his housebound mother.
- Felt like a man in a Rembrandt, tinged brown with sorrow and wisdom —Laurie Colwin
- Felt like a man reprieved from the gallows —Wilfrid Sheed
- Felt like a man who had had a tooth out that had been hurting him for a long time —Leo Tolstoy
- Felt like an emotional invalid, like a balloon without the helium —T. Coraghessan Boyle
- (After my husband died I) felt like one of those spiraled shells washed up on the beach … no flesh, no life —Lynn Caine
- Felt shut off like a turtle inside her skin —Laura Furman
- Felt worry and joy flinging her about like a snowflake —Mary Hedin
- A foul feeling, like looking over the edge of the world —Jean Rhys
- Guilty and elated, as though I’d successfully committed a small theft —Christopher Isherwood
- Half smiles, half tears, like rain in sun —John Greenleaf Whittier See Also: TEARS, SMILES
- Heart expanded like bellows —Laurie Colwin
- His senses nagged at him like pampered babies —Stephen Crane
- Inhibitions gave way like an earth dam collapsing in front of a winter flood —Graham Masterson
- Isolation, frustration and sometimes fear run like a leitmotif through our lives —Philip Taubman, New York Times Magazine, September 21, 1986
- It [his emotion for a woman] struck him like sickness —H. E. Bates
- Love and emptiness in us are like the sea’s ebb and flow —Kahlil Gibran
- My emotions flowered in me like a divine revelation —André Gide
- My heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels —The Holy Bible/Psalms
- Old feelings gather fast upon me like vultures round their prey —Emily Brontë
- Our feelings have edges and spines and prickles like cactus, or porcupines —Laurie Colwin
Colwin is likening the cactus/porcupine edges and spines to the feelings of two lovers.
- Our feelings penetrate us like a poison of undetectable nature —Anais Nin
- Pride and anger seemed like overblown spent clouds of thunder —John Greenleaf Whittier
- Profound feelings … swept through and racked his being like gusts of fire —George Garrett
- (A feeling of) relief circles us like a spring breeze —Richard Ford
- Relief courses through me like cool water —Marge Piercy,
- Relief had come in like a warm and welcome flood —Carlos Baker
- Relieved [after things have been put right] … like they lifted a concrete block out of my belly —John Updike
- Rolled in self-pity and self-hatred like a hot sulfur spring —Marge Piercy
- Self-hatred living in him like a sick dog in a cellar —Bernard Malamud
- Sensations gave like snowslides in him —Larry Woiwode
- Sensations … whirling about him like snowflakes —Willa Cather
- (My feelings) snapped like a glass pipette —Diane Wakoski
- Stirred an emotion … like the birth of a butterfly within a cocoon —Adela Rogers St. Johns
- Sudden relief, like a rush of tears, came to her —Nadine Gordimer
- (Their hearts were open and) sweet sensations flowed in them like honey —Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
- Temperament, like liberty, is important despite how many crimes are committed in its name —Louis Kronenberger
- Temper like a bed of banked coals waiting to be fired into roaring flame by a spill of brandy —Davis Grubb
- They [true feelings] gathered around me like a mist, whose shape can be seen as it approaches, but not when it is on you —L. P. Hartley
- Too moved to even applaud … as if the air had been sucked out of the room —Samuel G. Freedman, New York Times, September 7, 1986
The performer who thus moved his audience was a cafe story teller.
- Treats his emotions … as vermin to be crushed in traps or poisoned with bait —Marge Piercy
- Truth and jealousy, like a team of plow horses, came crashing into the fragile barn of his illusions —Louis Auchincloss
- A vague uneasy stirring plagued her like some mental indigestion —Josephine Tey
- A warm feeling like cocoa on a cold night —Jean Stafford
- Wore his confidence like a tailored suit —Donald McCaig
- Wore sorrow and anger like a worn-out coat and would not throw it away —Belva Plain
- The young soldier’s heart was … like fire in his chest —D. H. Lawrence