See Also: TRUTH

1. Awareness of failure plagued at him like a sword, twisting in his consciousness cruelly as though it had been lying in wait to murder his self-respect —Noël Coward
2. Began to see herself from the outside, as if she was a moving target in someone else’s binoculars —Margaret Atwood
3. Flash of insight as pitiless as the late-autumn light —Sharon Sheehe Stark
4. Horror … burst upon him like an electric storm that throws a vivid light into the darkest shadow —Mazo De La Roche
5. It [realization] came to her slowly as a negative being developed —Elizabeth Spencer
6. Knowledge penetrated my consciousness like a red-hot knife —Stefan Zweig
7. Light burst on me as if a window of my memory had been suddenly flung open on a street in the city —Joseph Conrad
8. Like a lover or lecher, the awareness came to her at night. Every perception rejoices in itself like a fire catching fire through itself —Delmore Schwartz
9. Like French women who can tell if a bottle of Cognac has been opened in the next room, Guido could tell what was happening at home as soon as he put his key in the lock —Laurie Colwin
10. Realization … dawned … like the sunrise —Donald Seaman
11. Realization came … like a fist knocking the wind out of her —David Leavitt
12. Realization grips them like a seizure —T. Coraghessan Boyle
13. The realization … made the nape of my neck feel like I’d just applied an ice pack —Sue Grafton
14. Saw as one sees a landscape in a flash of lightning —Virginia Woolf
15. Saw it like a thunderbolt —Clifford Odets
16. See it all like a chart unrolled —John Greenleaf Whittier
17. Suddenly, as if a wet sheet had been thrown over her, the truth of the matter strikes her —T. Coraghessan Boyle
18. The knowledge sank like a plummet —Jean Stafford
19. A thousand things … suddenly added up like a column of figures in her mind —William Humphrey
20. (Trifles … like a spark falling upon tinder, can) throw a flame of light into the abyss of a mind —Stefan Zweig
21. The truth flared in his head like a marron —Miles Gibson
22. The truth popped out like a jack-in-the-box —George Garrett
23. Trying to find it [self-knowledge] in the bosom of a Mississippi family was like trying to find some object lost in a gigantic attic, when you really didn’t know what you were looking for —Elizabeth Spencer

    See Also: IMPOSSIBILITY

24. An uncomfortable truth had come to settle like a shroud over the … investigation —Doug Feiden

    The comparison in Feiden’s novel, The $10,000,000 Getaway, pertains to the investigation of a Lufthansa airline robbery.

25. Understanding fell across me like a velvet curtain —Russell Banks