4 Metaphors for mainstay

In the beginning man's struggle was for life and the mainstay of life was food.

Apart from this correspondence and the other literature of the time, my mainstay throughout has been the Privatleben der Römer of Marquardt, which forms the last portion of the great Handbuch der Römischen Altertümer of Mommsen and Marquardt.

The remarkable thing about this Teutonising movement is that its mainstay has always been the extreme Catholic party, which on religious grounds had been the most violent opponent of the attempted Teutonification by the Dutch.

Its dominant note is one of patient strength and simplicity; the mainstay of its working is the tacit, stern, yet loving alliance between Nature and the Man who faces her himself, trusting to himself and her for the physical means of life, and the spiritual contentment with life which she must grant if he be worthy.

4 Metaphors for  mainstay