Analogy

Reasoning or explaining from parallel cases. A simile is an expressed analogy; a metaphor is an implied one.

•"Writing a book of poetry is like dropping a rose petal down the Grand Canyon and waiting for the echo."
(Don Marquis)



•"Being obsessed with deficit reduction when the economy has suffered its largest setback since the Depression is like being obsessed with water conservation when your house is on fire--an admirable impulse, poorly timed."
(Daniel Gross, "A Birder's Guide to D.C." Newsweek, Nov. 16, 2009)



•"Harrison Ford is like one of those sports cars that advertise acceleration from 0 to 60 m.p.h. in three or four seconds. He can go from slightly broody inaction to ferocious reaction in approximately the same time span. And he handles the tight turns and corkscrew twists of a suspense story without losing his balance or leaving skid marks on the film. But maybe the best and most interesting thing about him is that he doesn't look particularly sleek, quick, or powerful; until something or somebody causes him to gun his engine, he projects the seemly aura of the family sedan."
(Richard Schickel, Time magazine review of Patriot Games)



•"If I had not agreed to review this book, I would have stopped after five pages. After 600, I felt as if I were inside a bass drum banged on by a clown."
(Richard Brookhiser, "Land Grab." The New York Times, Aug. 12, 2007)



•"One good analogy is worth three hours discussion."
(Dudley Field Malone)



•"MTV is to music as KFC is to chicken."
(Lewis Black)



•"Memory is to love what the saucer is to the cup."
(Elizabeth Bowen, The House in Paris, 1949)