Example: jsfiddle.net/h5sE6/
css:
ul {
float: left;
margin-right:20px;
}
ul li {
height: 3em;
border: 1px solid #ff0000;
width:200px;
}
html:
<ul>
<li> Some text</li>
<li>Some text<br />some more text</li>
<li>some test text3</li>
<li>even more text<br />and more</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li> Some text</li>
<li>Some text<br />some more text</li>
<li>some test text</li>
<li>even more text<br />and more</li>
</ul>
This is trivial with vertically aligning text and making the height equal to the line-height if you have one line only but any more than that, things look really screwy.