Fifteen Thousand Useful Phrases by Grenville Kleiser (my reading book .txt) 📖

platitude

It is not consistent with elevated and dignified character

It is not wholly insignificant

It is notoriously easy to exaggerate

It is the common consent of men

It is unnecessary to multiply instances

It makes life insupportable

It must be a matter of conjecture

It occasions suspicion and discontent

It runs counter to all established customs

It was a matter of notoriety

It wears a ragged and dangerous front

It would be a fruitless and unthankful task

It would be superfluous to say

It would not seem an improbable conclusion

Its dominating and inspiring influence

J

Jealous and formidable foes

Justifiable in certain exigencies [exigencies = urgent situations]

K

Keen power of calculation and unhesitating audacity

Kindle the flames of genuine oratory

Knotty and subtle disquisitions [disquisitions = formal discourse]

L

Labored and far-fetched elocution

Laid down in a most unflinching and vigorous fashion

Lamentable instances of extravagance

Lash themselves into fury

Lax theories and corresponding practises

Lay hold of the affections

Leaden mood of dulness

Lend a critical ear

Lest the requirements of courtesy be disregarded

Links in the chain of reasoning

Little less than scandalous

Lofty and distinguished simplicity

Long-sighted continuity of thought and plan

Looking at the matter by and large

Looming large and ugly in the public view

Loose and otiose statement [otiose = lazy; indolent; of no use]

Lost in indolent content

Lovely beyond all words

Lucidity and argumentative vigor

Lulled into a sense of false satisfaction

M

Maddened by a jealous hate

Maintained with ingenuity and vigor

Manifestly harsh and barbarous

Marvelous copiousness of illustration

Marvelously suggestive and inspiring

Men of profound erudition [erudition = extensive learning]

Mere effects of negligence

Microscopic analysis of character

Mingled distrust and fear

Ministering to mere pleasure and indulgence

Minutely and rationally exposing their imperfections

Morbid and subjective brooding

More or less severe and prolonged

Moved to unaccustomed tears

My worst suspicions were confirmed

Mysterious and invincible darkness

N

Naked vigor of resolution

Naturally prone to believe

Necessity thus imposed by prudence

Nerveless and faithless folly

No more than brief palliatives or mitigations

Noble and sublime patience

Noisy torrent of talk

Not averse to a little gossip

Not so much polished as varnished

Noted for their quixotic love of adventure

Nothing could be more captious or unfair [captious = disposition to find and point out trivial faults]

Nothing remained but a graceful acquiescence

Notoriously distracted by internecine jealousies

O

Objects of general censure

Obscured beneath the rubbish of the age

Obsessed with an overweening pride

Obstacles that are difficult but not insuperable

Obviously at variance with facts

Occasioned by direct moral turpitude [turpitude = depravity; baseness]

Oddly amenable to the proposed innovations

Often employed promiscuously

Ominous and swift days

Omitting all compliments and commonplaces

On a noble and commanding scale

On sure ground of fact

On the edge of great irritability

On the horns of a dilemma

One of life's ironical adjustments

One of the foreseen and inevitable results

One tissue of rashness, folly, ingratitude, and injustice

Openly flouted and disavowed

Oppressed by some vague dread

Organs of party rage and popular frenzy

Our opinions were diametrically opposed

Our vaunted civilization

Outward mark of obeisance and humiliation [obeisance = attitude of deference]

Overcome by an access of misery

Overshadowed by a fretful anxiety

Overwhelmed with reproach and popular indignation

P

Painful and lamentable indifference

Palpably and unmistakably commonplace

Parading an exception to prove a rule

Paralyzed by infirmity of purpose

Paralyzing doubts and scruples

Paramount obligation and righteousness

Partial and fragmentary evidence

Passionately addicted to pleasure

Patently inimical to liberty

Patience under continual provocation

Peculiarly liable to misinterpretation

Peddling and pitiful compromises

Pelting one another with catchwords

Perfectly illustrated and exemplified

Perpetually excite our curiosity

Pierced to the quick

Pitiful shifts of policy

Plainly dictated by a lofty purpose

Pleading the exigencies of strategical interest [exigencies = urgent situations]

Plunged into tumultuous preoccupation

Pointed out with triumphant malice

Polished beauty of diction

Political storm and stress.

Position of titular command

Preached with a fierce unction [unction = exaggerated earnestness]

Precipitate and arbitrary changes

Predict the gloomiest consequences

Pregnant with a lesson of the deepest import

Presented with matchless vigor and courage

Princely generosity of praise

Prodigious and portentous events

Protracted to a vexatious length

Proud schemes for aggrandizement

Provocative of bitter hostility

Pruned of their excrescences and grotesque extremes [excrescences = abnormal growth, such as a wart]

Purged of glaringly offensive features

Pursued to a vicious extent

Q

Questioned and tested in the crucible of experience

Quickened into a stabbing suspicion

Quickness to conceive and courage to execute

Quite destitute of resources

Quixotically generous about money

R

Radiantly and transparently happy

Railed at the world

Rare candor and flexibility of mind

Rare fidelity of purpose and achievement

Rarely brought to pass

Reeling headlong in luxury and sensuality

Regarded with sincere abhorrence

Regulated by the fixed rules of good-breeding

Religious rights and ceremonies

Reluctant to appear in so equivocal a character

Render null and void

Rent by internal contentions

Repugnant alike to reason and conscience

Resigned to growing infirmities

Resist a common adversary

Resting on some collateral circumstance

Rhetorical and ambitious diction

Rich and exuberant complexities

Rigid and exact boundaries

Rooted in immeasurable error and falsity

Roused to tumultuous activity

Rude and blind criticism

S

Sadly counterbalanced by numerous faults

Said with epigrammatic point [epigrammatic = terse and witty]

Salutary in the extreme

Salutary tonic of a free current of public criticism

Sanity and quietness of soul

Scorned as an impracticable theory

Scornful of petty calculations

Screen themselves from punishment

Scrupulous and chivalrous loyalty

See with eagle glance through conventionalisms

Seem to savor of paradox

Seize the auspicious moment

Self-centered anxiety and preoccupation

Self-command born of varied intercourse

Self-interest of the most compelling character

Selfish and uselessly recondite [recondite = not easily understood]

Selfishness pampered by abundance

Senses of marvelous acuteness

Sensible diminution of our comfort

Sensitive and apprehensive temperament

Sentimental wailings for the past

Serve the innocent purposes of life

Set down with meticulous care

Shames us out of our nonsense

Sharp outbursts of hatred and bitterness

Sharp restrictions of duty and opportunity

Sharply and definitely conceived

She had lost her way in a labyrinth of conjecture

She took refuge in a passionate exaggeration of her own insufficiency

Sheer midsummer madness

Silly displays of cheap animosity

Simple and obvious to a plain understanding

Sinister and fatal augury [augury = sign of something coming; omen]

Skulking beneath a high-sounding benevolence

Slack-minded skimming of newspapers

Slavish doctrines of sectarianism

Slow and resistless forces of conviction

Smug respectability and self-content

Snatch some advantage

Socialized and exacting studies

Some very undignified disclosures

Something essentially inexpressible

Something stifling and over-perfumed

Spinning a network of falsehoods

Spiritual and moral significance

Staring in helpless bewilderment

Stealthily escaping observation

Stern determination to inflict summary justice

Stigmatized as moral cowards

Stimulated to profitable industry

Stopped as if on the verge of profundities

Strange frankness of cynical brutality

Strange streak of melancholy

Strangled by a snare of words

Strenuous and conscientious endeavor

Stretched out in dreary monotony

Strict and unalloyed veracity

Struck incessantly and remorselessly

Stupendous and awe-inspiring spectacle

Subject to the vicissitudes of fortune [vicissitudes = sudden or unexpected changes]

Subjected to the grossest cruelties

Subordination to the common weal

Subservient to the ends of religion

Sudden and inexplicable changes of mood

Suddenly and imperatively summoned

Suddenly swelled to unprecedented magnitude

Sufficient to repel vulgar curiosity

Suggestive sagacity and penetration [sagacity = farsighted; wise]

Suit the means to the end

Sullen and widespread discontent

Superior in strength and prowess

Supported by a splendid fearlessness

Supremely and undeniably great

Susceptible to every impulse and stimulus

Sustained dignity and mellifluous precision [mellifluous = flowing with honey; smooth and sweet]

Swamping every aspiration and ambition

Swift and vehement outbursts of feeling

T

Take root in the heart

Take vengeance upon arrogant self-assertion

Taken in their totality

Tamed and wonted to a settled existence

Tempered by the emotional warmth of high moral ideals

That way madness lies

The abysmal depths of despair

The accumulated bitterness of failure

The agonies of conscious failure

The air was full of the cry and clamor

The animadversions of critics [animadversions = Strong criticism]

The applause was unbounded

The best proof of its timeliness and salutariness [salutariness = favorable]

The bewildered and tumultuous world

The blackest abyss of despair

The blemishes of an extraordinary reputation

The bluntness of a provincial

The bogey of bad luck [bogey = evil or mischievous spirit; hobgoblin]

The bounding pulse of youth

The brunt of life

The capacity for refined pursuits

The charming omniscience of youth

The cloak of cowardice

The collective life of humanity

The combined dictates of reason and experience

The companion of a noble and elevated spirit

The complaining gate swung open

The complex phenomena of life

The consequence of an agitated mind

The consequence of ignorance and childish assumption

The constant pressure of anxieties

The creature and tool of a party

The critical eyes of posterity

The dead and dusty past

The delimitation is sufficiently definite

The dictates of plain reason

The disjointed babble of the chronicler

The dull derision of the world

The dullest and most vacant minds

The dumb forces of brute nature

The dupe of some imposture

The eager pretentiousness of youth

The ebb and flow of events

The everlasting deluge of books

The evil was irremediable

The exchange of harmless amenities

The exertion of an inherent power

The expression was keenly intellectual

The facile conjectures of ignorant onlookers

The facts took him by the throat

The fitful swerving of passion

The flabbiness of our culture

The flaccid moods of prose

The flame of discord raged with redoubled fury

The flattest and most obvious truisms

The flippant insolence of a decadent skepticism

The foe of excess and immoderation

The fog of prejudice and ill-feeling

The frustration of their dearest hopes

The garb of civilization

The general infusion of wit

The gift of prophecy

The golden years of youth and maturity

The gratification of ambition

The grim reality of defeat

The hall-mark of a healthy humanity

The handmaid of tyranny

The hint of tranquillity and self-poise

The hints