See Also: HAPPINESS, JOY

1. (There she lay) as complacently feminine as a turtle-dove —Christopher Isherwood
2. Content as a Parsee priestess who had duly paid her morning devotions to the deity —Israel Zangwill
3. Content as a tick sitting quietly on a tree and living off a tiny drop of blood plundered years before —Patrick Suskind
4. (She wanted us to be as) content as trees in a rain forest —Max Apple
5. Contented as a baby on a schedule —Hollis Summers
6. Contented as a cobra full of warm milk —Rupert Hughes
7. Content … like a little white kitty in a basket —Eudora Welty
8. Feel rewarded, like a gardener who’s cutting roots —Margaret Sutherland
9. Hummed … like a cook with things coming out right —William Beechcroft
10. Like jellyfish that lie beneath the warm ocean waters here [Hilton Head] there is discontent beneath the surface bonhomie (of the governors’ annual conference) —David Shieman, Wall Street Journal August 26, 1986
11. (She prospered and could expect to prosper more … but) like someone in exile, uncertain of deliverance, she was restless and dissatisfied —Robert Henson
12. Looked about as satisfied as a millionaire’s mistress —William Beechcroft
13. Mood of complacency … like a man who, having been under dire threat of burglary, suddenly increases his insurance and changes all the locks on his house and is convinced that these emergencies will make him for ever immune —H. E. Bates
14. Pleased as a cat with two tails —American colloquialism, attributed to New England

    A common variation: “Proud as a dog with two tails.”

15. Psyche … topped up like the tanks of the automobiles —Frank Conroy

    The simile from Conroy’s novel, Stop-Time, refers to more than one automobile because the scene is in a gas station. Removed from this context, “Topped up like the tank of an automobile” would have the same meaning.

16. Satisfying as getting a refund on your income tax —Anon
17. Sitting pretty, like a batter with three balls and no strikes against him —James Thurber

    See Also: BASEBALL

18. Take it (killing and bloodshed) in like the sun shines and the rain falls —Eileen O’Casey
19. Wears contentment like a wreath —Barbara Howes
20. When people abhor what they cannot comprehend, they are like those burning with fever, to whom the choicest food is unpalatable —Kahlil Gibran