See Also: BELONGING, EMPTINESS

1. Aimless as an autumn leaf borne in November’s Idle Winds —Paul Hamilton Hayne
2. Chuckled aimlessly, like an old man searching for his spectacles —James Crumley
3. The crowd scurried aimlessly away like ants from a disturbed crumb —O. Henry
4. Drift about … aimlessly as a ghost —Lawrence Durrell
5. Drifted like winter moons —Richard Wilbur
6. Drifting like breath —Robert Penn Warren
7. Drifts like a cloud —Dante Gabriel Rossetti
8. He was without subject matter, like a tennis player in the Arctic or a skier in Sahara’s sand —Delmore Schwartz
9. Kept going … like a car without a driver —Cornell Woolrich

   Woolrich’s description of aimlessness is a variant of “Aimless as a ship without a rudder;” in fact, in his story, Dawn to Dusk, Woolrich used the two similes together.

10. Lived from day to day as if the years were circular —Alice McDermott
11. Never really taking hold of anything, he slides in and out of jobs like a wind-up toy sledding about until the inevitable slowdown —Alvin Boretz, film treatment
12. Ran out of motives, as a car runs out of gas —John Barth
13. Walking in aimless circles like children during a school fire drill —James Crumley
14. Wandered about at random, like dogs that have lost the scent —Voltaire