Examples of expressions

Opportunity knocks, time flies, the new dress 'flew off the shelf', life passes by, are all examples of personification expressions. Opportunity is not a person that can knock at the door, time is not a bird that can fly through the air, and a dress cannot choose to fly off a shelf or anything else for that matter. Anytime someone uses a saying that gives a human quality to something that is not alive, that is an example of a personification expression.