9. Religion: Ethics and Morality

(1) According to Merriam-Webster, the first known use of the word absolutize was in 1919.

(1) “Words not only affect us temporarily; they change us, they socialize or unsocialize us.” —David Riesman, American sociologist, attorney, and educator (1909–2002)

Antithesis: “People will always talk about you, especially when they envy you and the life you live. Let them ... you affected their lives, they didn’t affect yours.” —Unknown

Metaphor: “To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of the arts.” —Henry David Thoreau, American essayist, poet, and philosopher (1817–1862)

Parallelism: “Other people’s acts will affect just them. It is only your own deeds that will affect you.” —Sri Sathya Sai Baba, Indian spiritual leader (1926–)

Repetition: “Little things affect little minds.” —Benjamin Disraeli, British prime minister and novelist (1804–1881)

Repetition: “The difficulty of literature is not to write, but to write what you mean; not to affect your reader, but to affect him precisely as you wish.” —Robert Louis Stevenson, Scottish essayist, poet, and author (1850–1894)

(2) put oil on in a ceremony of consecration

(1) “We believe that the federal judiciary’s attempt to arrogate to itself sole responsibility for resolving the profound moral and legal issues engaged by the abortion debate is undemocratic.” —George Wiegel and William Kristol, “Life and the Party,” National Review, 15 July 1994

(1) I worked to assuage my own guilt over the incident.

Collocates to: anger, anguish, anxiety, concerns, consciences, curiosity, doubt, feelings, fears, guilt, hunger, hurt, loneliness, pride, worries

(2) ensure; confirm; know for sure; nail down; substantiate; verify

Parallelism: “I assure you that a learned fool is more foolish than an ignorant fool.” —Moliere, French actor, playwright, and writer (1622–1673)

Parallelism: “We cannot always assure the future of our friends; we have a better chance of assuring our future if we remember who our friends are.” —Henry Kissinger, German-born American writer, political scientist, and former Secretary of State (1923–)

(1) In the book, Masters of the Universe, Daniel Stedman Jones, a barrister in London, covers the same ground and has intelligent things to say, but his book’s historical virtues are compromised by more adjectival attitudinizing than a chronicler of history should allow himself.” —Kenneth Minogue, “The Death and Life of Liberal Economics,” book review, “Books,” Wall Street Journal 27–28 October 2012, p. C5

Alliteration: After a time the course of the currents of two conflating rivers caused them to coalesce.

Metaphor: “After a certain high level of technical skill is achieved, science and art tend to coalesce in esthetics, plasticity, and form. The greatest scientists are always artists as well.” —Albert Einstein (1879–1955)

Collocates to: begin, around, elements form into, opportunities, single

(1) Recent movies seem to give a favorable view of the way the troops comport themselves in combat.

Metaphor: “I believe you have a responsibility to comport yourself in a manner that gives an example to others. As a young man, I prayed for success. Now I pray just to be worthy of it.” —Brendan Fraser, Canadian-American film and stage actor (1968–)

Vivid imagery: “In the wars of the European powers in matters relating to themselves we have never taken any part, nor does it comport with our policy so to do.” —President James Monroe

“Individuality is the aim of political liberty. By leaving the citizen as much freedom of action and of being as comports with order and the rights of others, the institutions render him truly a freeman. He is left to pursue his means of happiness in his own manner.” —James Fenimore Cooper, American writer of the early 19th century (1789–1851)

Collocates to: does, dress, dogma, himself, facts, governance, how, ideas, laws, manner, themselves, yourself, with, values

(1) In the biblical parable of Job, his friends defamed rather than condoled him.

(1) “We rarely confide in those who are better than we are.” —Albert Camus, French novelist, essayist, playwright, and winner of 1957 Nobel Prize for Literature (1913–1960)

Collocates to: anyone, courage, fears, feeling, friends, innermost, likely, someone, secrets, trust, whom

(1) “Ignorance of the law excuses no man; not that all men know the law, but because [‘]tis an excuse every man will plead, and no man can tell how to confute him.” —John Seldon, English jurist and scholar (1584–1654)

(2) make useless

Alliteration: “The arguments for purity of life fail of their due influence, not because they have been considered and confuted, but because they have been passed over without consideration.” —Samuel Johnson, English poet, critic, and writer (1709–1784)

Antithesis: “To command the professors of astronomy to confute their own observations is to enjoin impossibility, for it is to command them not to see what they do see, and not to understand what they do understand, and to find what they do not discover.” —Galileo Galilei, Italian natural philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician (1564–1642)

Parallelism: “Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider.” —Francis Bacon, British philosopher (1561–1626), in “Of Studies”

Vivid imagery: “Do not attempt to confute a lion after he’s dead.” —the Talmud

Alliteration: “It is a matter of common knowledge that the government of South Carolina is under domination of a small ring of cunning, conniving men.” —Sen. Strom Thurmond

Antithesis: “God cannot alter the past; that is why he is obliged to connive at the existence of historians.” —Samuel Butler, English novelist, essayist, and critic (1835–1902)

Antithesis: “If they had connived a scheme, and Christ had not been raised from the dead, where would have been the hardest place on the face of the earth to convince anyone? In Jerusalem.” —Josh McDowell, Christian apologist, evangelist, and writer (1939–)

(1) To consecrate his life to something greater than himself, he joined a silent order of monks.

(1) His work is in sharp contradistinction to the view of competition as a state of equilibrium induced by a particular market structure.

Antithesis: “These are our complex ideas of soul and body, as contradistinguished.” —John Locke, English philosopher and physician (1632–1704)

(1) Politicians will frequently cozen if they think it will further their political ends.

(1) “George has suggested that nothing would so seriously derogate American representative government as the allocation of American forces to non-American control for missions not chosen by persons directly accountable to American voters.” —Bruce Weinrod, “The U.S. Role in Peacekeeping-Related Activities,” World Affairs 155, issue 4, Spring 1993, p. 148

(1) “This was a mutual relationship, mutual on all levels, right from the way it started and all the way through. I don’t accept that he had to completely desecrate my character.” —Monica Lewinsky, American woman with whom United States President Bill Clinton admitted to having had an “improper relationship” (1973–)

Collocates to: body, dead, desire, flag, graves, land, religious, sacred

(2) be discerning; biased; differentiate; notice incompatible differences; be partial; prejudice; make unequal; unequal

(1) The governor espoused a program of tax cuts.

(2) take as a wife

(2) cause or experience a protrusion

(3) disembowel

(1) His extensive knowledge of the topic and his sharp retorts helped eviscerate his debating opponent.

(2) curse or call evil down upon

(3) speak abusively of; be contemptuous of; denounce scathingly

(4) abhor; detest; loathe

(2) become accustomed

(3) make or become hard

(1) You can opine about what employers should care about, but their primary concern is whether you will fit in.

(2) make morally right or binding

(2) bring to a desired consistency, texture, or hardness by a process of gradual heating and cooling

(1), (2) “We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans—born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage, and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.” —John F. Kennedy, presidential inaugural address, 19 January 1961

(3) harden by reheating and cooling in oil

(2) look upon with feelings of deep respect; regard as venerable

(1) “One reason why George Washington is held in such veneration: He never blamed his problems on the former administration.” —Unknown

Collocates to: academic, blessed, Christians, constitution, cross, culture, faith, family, image, Mary