The Japanese like comparison!?

If you take a look at grammar textbooks written in Japanese, you will be surprised that a lot of space is occupied with explanation about comparison. Even the book I'm using for a beginners' class has more than 10 pages for it and there is a list of idioms related to comparison, which will be shown below. I don' t think that some of them should be called idioms.


According to "新ＴＯＥＩＣテスト英文法をはじめからていねいに (TOEIC: English Grammar from the beginning)" by Tetsuya Yasukochi, Toshin Books

as... as any ~
(number) times as ... as ~
as... as ~ can = as... as possible
as... as ever
as... as ever lived [was]
do not so much as V
as many~
all the (comparative) for ~ = all the (comparative) because SV
not... any more than~
no more... than ~
no less... than~
no more than~
not more than~
no less than~
not less than~
S not V, much [still] less ~ = S not V, let alone~
not... any longer = no longer...
know better than to V
sooner or later
more or less
none the less
would rather V1 than V2
at most = not more than~
do one's best
not... in the least [slightest]