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Fifteen Thousand Useful Phrases

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 of an imaginable alliance The hobgoblin of little minds The holiest and most ennobling sensations of the soul The hollowest of hollow shams The homely virtue of practical utility The hubbub and turmoil of the great world The huge and thoughtful night The hurly-burly of events The idea was utterly hateful and repugnant The idle of all hobbledehoys [hobbledehoys = gawky adolescent boy] The ignoble exploitation of public interests The imminent fatality awaiting him The impulse of prejudice or caprice The incorrigibility of perverse human nature The incursions of a venomous rabble The indulgence of an overweening self-conceit The inevitable climax and culmination The inference is inescapable The infirmity and fallibility of human nature The inflexible serenity of the wheeling sun The ingenuities of legal verbiage The inmost recesses of the human heart The insipidity of indifference The insolence of power The irony of circumstances The jaded weariness of overstrained living The jargon of well-handled and voice-worn phrases The jostling and ugliness of life The lawyer's habit of circumspection and delay The long-delayed hour of retribution The lowest grade of precarious mendacity [mendacity = untruthfulness] The makeshifts of mediocrity The malarious air of after-dinner gossip The mazes of conflicting testimony The mean and frivolous affections of the idle The menacing shadow of want The mere fruit of his distempered imagination The mere reversal of the wheel of fortune The merest smattering of knowledge The meticulous preciosity of the lawyer and the logician [preciosity = extreme overrefinement] The most absurd elementary questions The most amazing impudence The most exacting and exciting business The most fallacious of all fallacies The most implacable logic The most preposterous pride The multitudinous tongue of the people The outcome of unerring observation The outraged conscience of mankind The overpowering force of circumstances and necessity The overweening exercise of power The panacea for the evils of society The panorama of history The pernicious doctrines of skeptics The perpetrator of clumsy witticisms The precarious tenure of fame The precursor of violence The pretty and delicate game of talk The primitive instinct of self-preservation The property of little minds The prophecies of visionaries and enthusiasts The proprieties of etiquette The purse-proud inflation of the moneyed man The question was disconcertingly frank The ravening wolves of brute instinct The remark was sternly uncompromising The result of caprice The rigor of the law The sanction and authority of a great name The severest shocks of adverse fate The sharp and vehement assertion of authority The sinister influence of unprincipled men The speaker drew an indignant breath The springs of human action The staple of conversation The stillness of finality The stings of self-reproach The straightforward path of inexorable logic The strong hand of executive authority The sum and fruit of experience The sum total of her impressions was negative The summit of excellence The supernatural prescience of prophecy The sweet indulgence of good-nature The sycophants of the rich [sycophant = servile self-seeker attempting to win favor by flattery] The taint of fretful ingratitude The talk flowed The target for ill-informed criticism The tears welled up and flowed abundantly The tediousness of inactivity The tendency to evade implicit obligations The ties of a common cause The tranquil aspects of society The tribute of affectionate applause The ultimate verdict of mankind The unbroken habit of a lifetime The unimpeachable correctness of his demeanor The unlicensed indulgence of curiosity The unsophisticated period of youth The utmost excitement and agitation The vanishing thoughtlessness of youth The vanity and conceit of insular self-satisfaction The very texture of man's soul and life The victim of an increasing irritability The victorious assertion of personality The virtue of taciturnity [taciturnity = habitually untalkative] The voice was sharp and peremptory [peremptory = ending all debate or action] The want of serious and sustained thinking The widest compass of human life The wonderful pageant of consciousness The words stabbed him Their authenticity may be greatly questioned Their indignation waxed fast and furious Themes of perennial interest There was a blank silence There was no sense of diminution They affected the tone of an impartial observer They rent the air with shouts and acclamations Thoughts which mock at human life Through ever-widening circles of devastation Through the distortions of prejudice Thwarted by seeming insuperable obstacles Time was dissolving the circle of his friends Times of unexampled difficulty Tinseled over with a gaudy embellishment of words To a practised eye To be sedulously avoided [sedulously = persevering] To prosecute a scheme of personal ambition To state the case is to prove it Too preposterous for belief Too puerile to notice Too sanguine a forecast [sanguine = cheerfully confident; optimistic] Torn asunder by eternal strife Totally detached from all factions Touched with a sort of reverential gratitude Transcend the bounds of human credulity Transitory in its nature Transparent and ridiculous self-importance Treasured up with a timid and niggardly thrift Treated the idea with lofty scorn Tremendous exploits and thrilling escapades True incentives to knowledge <h4 id="id15911" style="margin-top: 2em">U</h4> Unamiable and envious attributes Unbounded devotion and indulgence Uncharted oceans of thought Unconquerable fidelity to duty Under all conceivable circumstances Under the sway of arbitrary opinions Undertaken under propitious circumstances [propitious = auspicious, favorable; kindly] Uneasy sense of impending change Unequaled simplicity and directness of purpose Unexceptional in point of breeding Unexpected obstacles and inextricable difficulties Unfailing and miraculous foresight Unfeigned astonishment and indignation Unfounded and incredible calumnies [calumnies = maliciously false statements] Unhampered by binding alliances Universal in their signification Unjust and unrighteous persecution Unreasoning and unquestioning attachment Unrivaled beauty and excellence Unrivaled gift of succinct and trenchant speech [trenchant = forceful, effective, vigorous; incisive; distinct] Unsparing industry and attention Unspeakably alluring and satisfying Unsurpassed in force and fitness Unswerving and unselfish fidelity Untiring enunciation of platitudes and fallacies Unutterably trivial and paltry Unwavering and unquestioning approbation [approbation = warm approval; praise] Unworthy and ungenerous treatment Upbraid ourselves with folly Urgent warning and admonition Utterly and essentially irreverent <h4 id="id15943" style="margin-top: 2em">V</h4> Vast and vague aspirations Vastly complex and far-reaching problems Vehemently and indignantly repudiated Venerable and dignified conservatism Versatile and essentially original Versed in the arts of exciting tumult and sedition [sedition = insurrection; rebellion] Viewed in its general tenor and substance Vigorous and well compacted Violating all decency Violent and unforeseen vicissitudes [vicissitudes = sudden or unexpected changes] Vitiated by intolerance and shortsightedness [vitiated = reduce the value; corrupt morally; debase] Vivid even to oppressiveness Voracious and insatiable appetite Vulgar eagerness for place <h4 id="id15958" style="margin-top: 2em">W</h4> Warnings too pregnant to be disregarded Warped by personal pretensions and self-consequence We may parenthetically note We must profoundly revere it Weigh the merits and demerits Welcomed at first with skeptical contempt Well-concerted and well-timed stratagems Whirled into rapid and ceaseless motion Wholesale friction and discontent Wholly devoid of public interest Widely divergent social traits Wield an unequaled and paramount authority Wiser counsels prevailed Withal decidedly handsome Written in indelible characters upon his heart <h4 id="id15974" style="margin-top: 2em">Y</h4> Yield to urgent representations <h4 id="id15976" style="margin-top: 2em">Z</h4> Zealous in the cause he affected to serve [Pencilled into the flyleaf: "A navy blue feeling where my heart used to be"] <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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