7. Human Life and the Development of Human Life: Health and Disease, Types of Human Behavior and Experience, Nature, and Climate

(1) “So someday in the near future hopefully rather than having a foot or a leg amputated, we’ll just give you an injection of the cells and restore the blood flow. We’ve also created entire tubes of red blood cells from scratch in the laboratory. So there are a lot of exciting things in the pipeline.” —Robert Lanza, American doctor of medicine and scientist (1956–)

Metaphor: “Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity.” —Frank Leahy, football coach of the University of Notre Dame (1908–1973)

Simile: “Life is pain and the enjoyment of love is an anesthetic.” —Cesare Pavese, Italian poet, critic, novelist, and translator (1908–1950)

Antithesis: “Each wrong act brings with it its own anesthetic, dulling the conscience and blinding it against further light, and sometimes for years.” —Rose McCaulay, English writer (1881–1958)

(1) “But we heard something somewhere, crying. They were etiolate cries of anguish and excruciation beyond human comprehending, endurance, or pity. We lay around in the valley for a few days.” —Tanith Lee, “In the City of Dead Night,” Fantasy & Science Fiction 103, issue 4/5, 1992, p. 198

(2) deprive of strength; weaken

(3) blanch or bleach by depriving of sunlight

(2) soften, usually after soaking in a liquid

(3) cause to grow thin or weak; waste away by or as if by excessive fasting

(1) “The medications that we have help to palliate the impulsivity and the mood disorder, the mood disregulation. The psychotherapies are in no way curative; they are primarily supportive.” —Patrick Perry, “Personality Disorders: Coping with the Borderline,” Saturday Evening Post 269, issue 4, July/August 1997, p. 44–84

(1) The trend of larger classes makes for disorder, but it is abetted by another trend, and that is teachers losing control of their students.

Metaphor: “Abetted by corrupt analysts, patients who have nothing better to do with their lives often use the psychoanalytic situation to transform insignificant childhood hurts into private shrines at which they worship unceasingly the enormity of the offenses committed against them. This solution is immensely flattering to the patients—as are all forms of unmerited self-aggrandizement; it is immensely profitable for the analysts—as are all forms pandering to people’s vanity; and it is often immensely unpleasant for nearly everyone else in the patient’s life.” —Thomas Szasz, psychiatrist and academic (1920–2012)

(1) If you rent a stable horse, it can easily absquatulate if you dismount.

(2) abscond

(3) argue

(1) Alex knew how passionate and agitated the crowd was, so rather than acerbate them further, he tempered his remarks.

(1) His childlike actions acerbate his fellow classmates and make it hard to carry on a meaningful conversation.

(1) “In following the separate and shared paths of the novel’s principal characters from childhood into middle age, Ms. Mitchell and company are out to beguile and addle all the senses.” —Ben Brantley, “Six Lives Ebb and Flow, Interconnected and Alone,” New York Times, 2008

(2) muddle

(3) rot

Metaphor: “Speech is often barren; but silence also does not necessarily brood over a full nest. Your still fowl, blinking at you without remark, may all the while be sitting on one addled egg; and when it takes to crackling will have nothing to announce but that added delusion.” —George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans), British novelist; Felix Holt

Simile: “I am not like that. I pay rent, am addled by illegible landlords, run, if robbers call.” —Gwendolyn Brooks, American poet (1917–2000)

(1) “The vast majority of imported mixto is by established companies like Cuervo and Sauza, and we have no doubt that their product is genuine. But some of the others adulterate it and even use silly, offensive brand names that make Mexico look ridiculous.” —Robert Collier, “Tequila Temptation; It’s a National Success Story, an Authentically Mexican Symbol,” San Francisco Chronicle, 19 October 1997

Metaphor: “JUSTICE, n. A commodity which is a more or less adulterated condition the State sells to the citizen as a reward for his allegiance, taxes, and personal service.” —Ambrose Bierce, American writer, journalist, and editor (1842–1914)

Simile: “The test of friendship is assistance in adversity, and that too, unconditional assistance. Co-operation which needs consideration is a commercial contract and not friendship. Conditional co-operation is like adulterated cement which does not bind.” —Mohandas Gandhi

Metaphor: “Brethren, if I were to tell you all I know of the kingdom of God, I do know that you would rise up and kill me. Don’t tell me anything that I can’t bear, for I don’t want to apostatize.” —Joseph Smith

(1) I won’t arrogate to teach you about life.

Alliteration: He will arrogate, assume, and ascribe such powers to himself.

(1) The term aspenize derives from Aspen, Colorado, a tourist city in the United States.

(1) “People say they don’t want to aspenize the county, pricing our workers and the natives out.” —Kevin McCullen, Rocky Mountain News, 21 March 1993

(1) A poet can asperse anything by a clever and creative simile.

(1) “Clinton’s missteps handed Republicans a major chance to regain the high ground on the civil rights debate. We needed just three things: rhetoric worthy of the moment; actions consistent with the rhetoric; and a Big Tent that would let us assail prejudices without creating new class frictions.” Tony Snow, “The Race Card,” The New Republic 207, issue 25, 14 December 1992, p. 17–20

(2) attack verbally; berate; criticize

(3) censure; be sanctimonious

Antithesis: “In all my writings, my aim has been to spare sinners and assail sin.” —Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor from 161 to 180 CE, (121 CE–180 CE)

Metaphor: “There mark what ills the scholar’s life assail, toil, envy, want, and patron.” —Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)

(1) Too many people tend to moralize and awfulize their own faults and shortcomings.

(1) The mountain we raced down was overgrown and strewn with rocks, requiring us to bike-wack.

Metaphor: “Warren G. Harding was the person who invented the word bloviate and was the only man, woman or child who wrote a simple declarative sentence with seven grammatical errors.” —e. e. Cummings

(1) “When I was a kid, we all drove muscle cars with enormous hemis; the term ‘breakin’ the ton’ was popular slang.” —Gregg, wwwslkword.com blog

(1) “The bustle in a house the morning after death is solemnest of industries enacted upon earth, The sweeping up the heart, and putting love away we shall not want to use again until eternity.” —Emily Dickinson, American poet (1830–1886)

Antithesis: “If a man knew anything, he would sit in a corner and be modest; but he is such an ignorant peacock, that he goes bustling up and down, and hits on extraordinary discoveries.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson

Parallelism: We bustle through the day, we bustle through events, we bustle through life.

(1) “The involvement of the broader groups will ensure that the G-2 does not collude against the rest of the world and promote its own interests at everyone else’s expense.” —Author, “America and Europe: Clash of the Titans,” Foreign Affairs 78, issue 2, March/April 1999, p. 20–34

(1) The government must listen to the families of people injured by employer negligence, not collude with the business world.

Alliteration: We will cunningly collude, connive, conspire, and scheme to win a victory for freedom.

Alliteration: They colluded, connived, conspired, were counseled by, and were in cahoots with those charlatans who would cavil and avoid confronting the charade of charter reform.

(2) cause to be admitted

(3) confer trust upon

Antithesis: “It is most pleasant to commit a just action which is disagreeable to someone whom one does not like.” —Victor Hugo, French poet, novelist, and playwright (1802–1885); L’Homme Qui Rit

Antithesis: “I don’t like to commit myself about heaven and hell—you see, I have friends in both places.” —Mark Twain

Metaphor: “The achievement of your goal is assured the moment you commit yourself to it.” —Mack R. Douglas, American author

(1) She insulted me, but I did not condescend to reply.

(1) “Don’t be condescending to unskilled labor. Try it for a half a day first.” —Brooks Atkinson, American journalist and critic (1894–1984)

Antithesis: “Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits. Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.’” —Bible (Romans 12:16–19)

Antithesis: “Fortune has rarely condescended to be the companion of genius.” —Isaac Disraeli, British writer (1766–1848)

Repetition: “Rain is grace; rain is the sky condescending to the earth; without rain, there would be no life.” —John Updike, American writer (1932–2009)

Metaphor: “Shall we now contaminate our fingers with base bribes, and sell the mighty space of our large honors for so much trash as may be grasped thus? I’d rather be a dog and bay at the moon than be such a Roman.” —William Shakespeare

Simile: “Images contaminate us like viruses.” —Paul Virilio, French cultural theorist and urbanist (1932–)

Simile: “A man who is free is like a mangy sheep in a herd. He will contaminate my entire kingdom and ruin my work.” —Jean-Paul Sartre, French novelist, philosopher, dramatist, and political activist (1905–1980); King Aegistheus in The Flies, Act 2

(1) “A good number of writers specifically urged their readers not to despise, contemn, or use unmannerly speech or behavior towards the aged.” —Dallet Hemphill, “Age Relations and the Social Order in Early New England: The Evidence from Manners,” Journal of Social History 28, issue 2, Winter 1994, p. 271

(1) “Milton Friedman argued, state experts implementing abstract ideals about satisfying human needs are merely blundering about in the dark.... Nothing here, of course, denigrates, the essential role of the state in providing the infrastructure of law and justice (not to mention defense) on which freedom in all its forms rests.” —Kenneth Minogue, “The Death and Life of Liberal Economics,” Wall Street Journal 27–28 October 2012

Alliteration: “It is a shame to misuse our beautiful language to denigrate, defame, or disparage another individual.”

Vivid Imagery: “Men are not the enemy, but the fellow victims. The real enemy is women’s denigration of themselves.” —Betty Friedan

Collocates to: ideas, demean, importance, mean, others, religion, tends

(1) “Critics, including the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors, say the tribe’s plans to build ‘Rancho San Pablo’ would despoil the natural beauty of the area—one of the Bay Area’s last large undeveloped bayside vistas.” —Jim Doyle, “Pomo Indians Plan Housing Tract on San Pablo Bay Land,” San Francisco Chronicle, 15 January 1996

(1) “Aristotle said: ‘Men come together in cities in order to live, but they remain together in order to live the good life.’ It is harder and harder to live the good life in American cities today. The catalog of ills is long: there is the decay of the centers and the despoiling of the suburbs.” President Lyndon Baines Johnson, The Great Society Speech, Ann Arbor, Mich. 22 May 1964

Collocates to: environment, lands, natural beauty, open space, parklands, wetlands, wilderness

(1) Since the 1930s, the U.S. Congress has been able to diddle around with the income tax law so that almost no one can really understand it.

(2) be idle, indolent

(3) move back and forth in a jerky fashion

(4) (slang) masturbate or have sex

Alliteration: “God whom we see not, is: and God, who is not, we see; fiddle, we know, is diddle: and diddle, we take it, is dee.” —A. C. Swinburne, British poet and critic (1837–1909); The Heptalogia

Parallelism: “On the contrary, everyone diddles, cheats, and frustrates everyone else, and is diddled, cheated, and frustrated in return.” —Unknown

(1) Hurry up! Don’t dillydally; we are in a hurry.

(1) The strategy of colonial powers was to disaffect potential resistance leaders from the local native population.

(1) “Affection cannot be manufactured or regulated by law. If one has no affection for a person or a system, one should be free to give the fullest expression to his disaffection, so long as he does not contemplate, promote, or incite to violence.” —Mahatma Gandhi

Alliteration: The result of the party’s actions were to disaffect, disquiet, disturb, divide, and create disunity when it could be least afforded.

(1) The board of directors disavowed the actions of the CEO.

Antithesis: “One may disavow and disclaim vices that surprise us, and whereto our passions transport us; but those which by long habits are rooted in a strong and powerful will are not subject to contradiction. Repentance is but a denying of our will, and an opposition of our fantasies.” —Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, French Renaissance writer (1533–1592)

(1) As a result of all the problems and issues he faced, his thinking had become discombobulated.

(2) confuse or disconcert; frustrate; upset

(2) “The imagery of the writer’s helps to demonstrate Houdini’s ability to discombobulate rational thought, even after a century.” —Edward Rothstein, “Upside-Down King as Art Muse,” New York Times, 28 October 2010

(1) Well, they can continue debating, but I am afraid that they do not discomfit me in the least.

(1) Her unusual defense strategy seemed to disconcert the prosecution team.

Antithesis: “A polite enemy is just as difficult to discredit, as a rude friend is to protect.” —Bryant H. McGill, American author, speaker, and activist (1969–)

Antithesis: “Contrary to the vulgar belief that men are motivated primarily by materialistic considerations, we now see the capitalist system being discredited and destroyed all over the world, even though this system has given men the greatest material comforts.” —Ayn Rand, Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and novelist (1905–1982)

Parallelism: “Until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned ... Everything is war. Me say war. That until there are no longer first class and second class citizens of any nation ... Until the color of a man’s skin is of no more significance than the color of his eyes, me say war. That until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all without regard to race, me say war! —Bob Marley, Jamaican singer-songwriter (1945–1981)

(1) A frequent tactic of environmental zealots is to disparage the results of scientific research that disagrees with their ideology.

Metaphor: “To disparage the dictate of reason is equivalent to contemning the command of God.” —Saint Thomas Aquinas

Vivid Imagery: “People disparage knowing and the intellectual life, and urge doing. I am content with knowing, if only I could know.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson

(2) use equivocal terms or language in order to be decisive, mislead, hedge, or otherwise be deliberately ambiguous

(1), (2) It is not a sound strategy for a witness to equivocate before a grand jury.

Metaphor: “There is something suspicious about music, gentlemen. I insist that she is, by her nature, equivocal. I shall not be going too far in saying at once that she is politically suspect.” —Thomas Mann, German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, and essayist (1875–1955)

Repetition: “I am in earnest—I will not equivocate—I will not excuse—I will not retreat a single inch—and I will be heard!” —William Lloyd Garrison, U.S. abolitionist (1805–1879)

Collocates to: conflicts, differences, difficulties, dilemmas, discrimination, fears, feelings, issues, injustices, problems, situations, tendencies, threats, violence

Antithesis: “By speaking, by thinking, we undertake to clarify things, and that forces us to exacerbate them, dislocate them, schematize them. Every concept is in itself an exaggeration.” —Jose Ortega y Gasset, Spanish philosopher and humanist (1883–1955)

(1) “Philosophers have speculated on the question of God for thousands of years; the scientist must stop to observe and start to excogitate.”

(1) President Bush’s advisors encouraged him to excoriate Congress over their inaction on the education bill.

(2) take action that makes a situation worse; aggravate something further

(3) abrade; abuse; assail; scrape, scratch or rub the skin off; chafe; flay

(1) “He was the very coin of evil, with the face and bearing of a beast—malignancy made flesh, affecting them like a cold hand upon the heart. To hear him execrate God turned their bowels to ice. To see him was to look on leprosy. And so Hyde lived, unregenerate, cursing God and Henry Jekyll—God for having given Jekyll Me, Jekyll for giving life to Hyde.” —Normal Lock, “The Monster in Winter,” New England Review 28, issue 3, 2007, p. 163

(2) hate; use profane language; regard with extreme dislike; swear; use Caperlash

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

(4) abhor; detest; loathe

Parallelism: “For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; As mine anger and my fury hath been poured forth upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem; so shall my fury be poured forth upon you, when ye shall enter into Egypt: and ye shall be an execration, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach; and ye shall see this place no more.” —Bible

(1) Diane fleered her opponent in the election.

(1) Some new digital applications can flummox the savviest mobile users.

Alliteration: “Flummoxed by Failure or Focused,” Ken Bain, Wall Street Journal, 14 July 2012

(1) “Can advertising foist an inferior product on the consumer? Bitter experience has taught me that it cannot. On those rare occasions when I have advertised products which consumer tests have found inferior to other products in the same field, the results have been disastrous.” —David Ogilvy, top British advertising executive (1911–1999)

(1) “Call it free-balling, California casual, alfresco, or the much-preferred “going commando.” Unless that sundress is super susceptible to breeze, super short, or you’re super drunk, no one will know the difference.” —Rebekah Gleaves, Memphis Flyer, 26 June 2004

(1) He was a founding member of the religion, yet the church leaders wanted him to gainsay his faith.

(1) “When you see ah sucker, stick out yo belly and put on a sad face. Then you be like, Sir (or Madame), could you spare me a quarter for sumpin to eat? You can gank a few. And you can pull a big draw if you can find a whole gang of suckers from the same office all bunched up together.” —Jeffery Renard Allen, “Holding Pattern,” Literary Review 46, Summer 2003

(2) be compatible, similar, or consistent

(2) color to hide the original; give a deceptively attractive appearance

(1) Under the scathing criticism of the opposition, the pent-up fury of the original speaker vented itself into a fiery harangue.

(1) Political debates used to be opportunities for voters to learn the candidates’ views on issues, but now the debate time seems to be spent seeing who can heckle and hector their opponent more.

(1) “Finish each day before you begin the next, and interpose a solid wall of sleep between the two. This you cannot do without temperance.“ —Ralph Waldo Emerson, American poet, lecturer, and essayist (1803–1882)

(1) Former President Clinton had a scheme to inveigle several big insurance firms to cover his legal costs of impeachment.

(1) The hackers machinated a way to steal credit numbers from the company’s website.

(2) arrange through systematic planning and a united front

(1) The police report showed that Ray killed his own brother to make his bones for the Bloods.

(2) depart; travel (a place)

(2) deprive by deceit

(1), (2) Partly due to the FDC’s secret beginnings and the unpublished minutes of all their meetings, many believe the Fed tends to mulct the public.

(1) Erik’s intent was to nettle Bill with constant galimatias chatter.

Antithesis: “Out of this nettle—danger—we pluck this flower—safety.” —William Shakespeare, English dramatist, playwright, and poet (1564–1616)

Parallelism: “Weeds and nettles, briars and thorns, have thriven under your shadow, dissettlement and division, discontentment and dissatisfaction, together with real dangers to the whole.” —Oliver Cromwell, English military and political leader and later Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England (1599–1658)

Simile: “Tender-handed stroke a nettle,/And it stings you for your pains;/Grasp it like a man of mettle,/And it soft as silk remains.” —Aaron Hill, A. Hill Works IV 120, 1753

Vivid Imagery: “Better to be a nettle in the side of your friend than his echo.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson, American poet, lecturer, and essayist (1803–1882)

(1) It is better to face the consequences of telling the truth than to try to obfuscate.

Antithesis: “It’s obfuscation. There is no attempt to be clear and concise and to describe the product for what it is.” —Don Catlin, American scientist (1938–)

(1) Everyone is looking for someone to objurgate for the high gas prices.

(1) The author’s style eventually obtrudes his world view on readers.

(2) extrude; force one’s self or one’s ideas on others; thrust out

(2) deal with facts, decisions, and details in a light or careless way; trifle

(1) “Claims that religion can affect health and weight rankle those who see spinning the $40 billion diet industry to a faith-based audience as just a way to use God as a gimmick.” —Rona Cherry, “Can You Pray Your Pounds Away?” Vegetarian Times, issue 339, March 2006, p. 80

Antithesis: “If you argue and rankle and contradict, you may achieve a temporary victory—sometimes; but it will be an empty victory because you will never get your opponent’s goodwill.” —Benjamin Franklin, American statesman, scientist, philosopher, printer, writer, and inventor (1706–1790)

Antithesis: “Time heals what reason cannot.” —Seneca, Roman philosopher, mid–1st century A.D.

Metaphor: “When valor preys on reason, it eats the sword it fights with.” —William Shakespeare, English dramatist, playwright, and poet (1564–1616)

Repetition: “It was not reason that besieged Troy; it was not reason that sent forth the Saracen from the desert to conquer the world; that inspired the crusades; that instituted the monastic orders; it was not reason that produced the Jesuits; above all, it was not reason that created the French Revolution. Man is only great when he acts from the passions; never irresistible but when he appeals to the imagination.” —Benjamin Disraeli, British prime minister and novelist (1804–1881)

Simile: “Reason is the slow and torturous method by which those who do not know the truth discover.” —Blaise Pascal, French mathematician, philosopher, and physicist (1623–1662)

(1) “Think not those faithful who praise all thy words and actions; but those who kindly reprove thy faults.” —Socrates

(1) “After all this fun, you wish a vacation? Oh, very well, Mathias. I know you are difficult. One week. Go to Elizabethan London. Take in a few plays, drink some sack, roister. That was a good time for roistering. But remember, when you return, you have your work cut out for you.” —Alexander Jablokov, The Breath of Suspension

(2) brag loudly

(1) “Mr. Holder’s department stonewalled to block congressional attempts to find out what really happened.” —Wall Street Journal, Opinion, 21 June 2012

(1) “The perceived threat by most Arabs following the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 contributed to the rise of the military in key Arab countries while creating an atmosphere of belligerency throughout the Arab world. Coupled with the impassioned demands for dismantling Israel, expectations of imminent material prosperity as a consequence of the drive toward modernity managed to stultify democratic appeals.” —Halal Khashan, “The Limits of Arab Democracy,” World Affairs 153, issue 4, Spring 1991, p. 127

(2) be a bumpkin or a couillon; be ineffective; make one’s mind dull; nebbish; nescient; stupid; torpid; be of unsound mind; vacuous

(1) “The most powerful, durable, and dangerous special interest—the one that can directly traduce the Constitution—is the political class.” —George Will, “The Court vs. the Reformers; The First Amendment vs. an Arizona Law,” Newsweek 156, issue 24, 30 December 2010

(2) be servile; be submissive; cringe; be a toady

(1), (2) “‘That’s all the more true because at least some of the leaders who avoided service sometimes seem less skeptical about the military than guilt-ridden about their own past. Thirty years later, now elected to positions of prominence, those who evaded service now truckle and fawn to demonstrate the depth of their regard for men in uniform,’ writes Andrew J. Bacevich, a professor at Johns Hopkins’s School of Advanced International Studies.” —Amy Waldman, “GIs: Not Your Average Joes,” Washington Monthly 28, issue 11, November 1966, p. 26

(1) Supreme Court justices were upbraided by the president during the State of the Union address.

(1) His family’s greed vexed him.

Antithesis: “Vexed sailors cursed the rain, for which poor shepherds prayed in vain.” —Edmund Waller, English poet and politician (1606–1687)

Antithesis: “It vexes me when they would constrain science by the authority of the Scriptures, and yet do not consider themselves bound to answer reason and experiment.” —Galileo

Antithesis: “One is always more vexed at losing a game of any sort by a single hole or ace, than if one has never had a chance of winning it.” —William Hazlitt, English writer (1778–1830)

Metaphor: “I’ll walk where my own nature would be leading: It vexes me to choose another guide.” —Emily Bronte, English novelist and poet (1818–1848)

Metaphor: “A very good part of the mischief that vex the world arises from words.” —Edmund Burke, British statesman and philosopher (1729–1797)

Repetition: “The greatest crimes are to associate another with God, to vex your father and mother, to murder your own species, to commit suicide, and to swear to lie.” —Muhammad, religious leader, prophet of Islam

(1) Political speeches have become an excuse to vilify one’s opponent.

Parallelism: “They have vilified me, they have crucified me; yes, they have even criticized me.” Richard J. Daley, former Chicago mayor (1902–1976)

Repetition: “Vilify, vilify, vilify, some of it will always stick.” —Pierre Beaumarchais, French playwright, watchmaker, inventor, musician, diplomat, fugitive, and spy (1732–1799)

Simile: “To vilify a great man is the readiest way in which a little man can himself attain greatness.” —Edgar Allan Poe

(1) He is one of those elitists who regularly vilipends popular culture.

(1) “Saint Augustine wished to exclude any necessarily illusory utopianism from human hope here below. Even with his full complement of secular pessimism, Augustine was not advocating cruel and arbitrary rule, for he knew well how wicked motives could vitiate an otherwise well-governed state.” —Fredrick Russell, “Only Something Good Can Be Evil: The Secular Genesis of Augustine’s Secular Ambivalence,” Theological Studies 51, issue 4, December 1990, p. 698

(2) impure; make unclean; pollute

(3) make corrupt; faulty; imperfect; invalidate; spoil

(1) “The Yugoslavian-born poet Charles Simic has said, ‘There are moments in life when true invective is called for, when it becomes an absolute necessity, out of a deep sense of justice, to denounce, mock, vituperate, lash out, in the strongest possible language.’ We have come to such a moment. Leaving aside invective, vituperation, and mockery, I believe that we need space for peaceful yet passionate outrage.” —Deborah Tannen, “We Need Higher Quality Outrage,” Christian Science Monitor, 2004

(2) shout, yell, clamor

(3) talk loudly and continually

(2) succeed in doing something

(1), (2) “Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them. —Joseph Heller, American satirical novelist, short story writer, and playwright (1923–1999)

(1), (2) “That some achieve great success, is proof to all that others can achieve it as well.” —President Abraham Lincoln

Antithesis: “To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan, and not quite enough time.” —Leonard Bernstein, American conductor, composer, and pianist (1918–1990)

Antithesis: “A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.” —Ayn Rand

Antithesis: “It is easy to hate and it is difficult to love. This is how the whole scheme of things works. All good things are difficult to achieve; and bad things are very easy to get.” —Confucius

Parallelism: “The more you seek security, the less of it you have. But the more you seek opportunity, the more likely it is that you will achieve the security that you desire.“ —Bryan Tracy, self-help author, motivational speaker, entrepreneur, and business coach (1944–)

Parallelism: “If you can dream it, then you can achieve it. You will get all you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want.” —Zig Zigler, motivational speaker (1926–2012)

(1) It was an important sign of personal growth for Joe to acquiesce to a plan he originally did not like.

Collocates to: agree, accept, compelled, expect, forced, should, would

(1) The ability to adapt to change is an important characteristic that employers look for in applicants.

(2) make fit, often by modification

(3) cause something to change for the better

Alliteration: With today’s rapid changes in technology, we can adapt, acclimate, adjust, accommodate, or accept an alteration in the quality of our anticipated lifestyle.

Metaphor: “The key to success is often the ability to adapt.” —Unknown

Metaphor: “Adapt yourself to the things among which your lot has been cast and love sincerely the fellow creatures with whom destiny has ordained that you shall live.” —Marcus Aurelius, Roman emperor (A.D. 121–180)

Metaphor: “Adapt or perish, now as ever, is nature’s inexorable imperative.” —H.G. Wells, English author (1866–1946)

Parallelism: “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” —George Bernard Shaw, Irish literary critic, playwright, essayist, and winner of the 1925 Nobel Prize for Literature (1856–1950)

Simile: “The wise adapt themselves to circumstances, as water molds itself to the pitcher.” —Chinese proverb

Vivid imagery: “We talk of our mastery of nature, which sounds very grand; but the fact is, we respectfully adapt ourselves, first, to her ways.” —Clarence Day, American humorist, essayist, biographer, and writer (1874–1935)

Alliteration: If you are to succeed, you must do what you are allotted, take up all you are assigned and apportioned, and set out to achieve.

Antithesis: “We trifle when we assign limits to our desires, since nature hath set none.” —Christian Nestell Bovee, American author (1820–1880)

Metaphor: “You cannot paint the Mona Lisa by assigning one dab of paint each to a thousand painters.” —William F. Buckley, Jr., American writer (1925–2008)

Vivid imagery: “It is the eye of ignorance that assigns a fixed and unchangeable color to every object; beware of this stumbling block.” —Paul Gauguin, French post-Impressionist artist (1848–1903)

(1) Some philosophers aver that both moral blame and legal responsibility should be based on prior behavior.

(1) “The anti-reformer is Chuck Schumer, the Senator from Wall Street, New York, who averred at the National Press Club last week that his party will have nothing to do with tax reform of the kind that Ronald Reagan negotiated with Democrats in 1989, or that the Simpson–Bowles deficit commission proposed in 2010, or that the Gang of Six Senators have been working on. It’s Chuck’s way or no way.” —Wall Street Journal, Opinion, 15 October 2012

Metaphor: “I know the thing that’s most uncommon (Envy be silent and attend!);
I know a reasonable woman,
Handsome and witty, yet a friend.

Not warped by passion, awed by rumor,
Not grave through pride, or gay through folly;
An equal mixture of good humor
And sensible soft melancholy.

‘Has she no faults, then (Envy says), sir?’
Yes, she has one, I must aver:
When all the world conspires to praise her,
The woman’s deaf, and does not hear.”

—Alexander Pope, British poet (1688–1744); “On a Certain Lady at Court”

(1) “I avow myself the partisan of truth alone.” —William Harvey, English physician (1578–1657)

Alliteration: If you set out to avow something and then acknowledge you are pledging your name, affirming your consciousness, and admitting publicly, you are asserting your honor.

Antithesis: “Cautious, careful people always casting about to preserve their reputation or social standards never can bring about reform. Those who are really in earnest are willing to be anything or nothing in the world’s estimation, and publicly and privately, in season and out, avow their sympathies with despised ideas and their advocates, and bear the consequences.” —Susan B. Anthony

(1) It’s free seating at the concert; we need to get there early to chope seats for our group.

Antithesis: “Like other revolutionaries, I can thank God for the reactionaries. They clarify the issue.” —Robin G. Collingwood, English philosopher (1889–1943)

Parallelism: “By speaking, by thinking, we undertake to clarify things, and that forces us to exacerbate them, dislocate them, schematize them. Every concept is in itself an exaggeration.” —Jose Ortega y Gasset, Spanish philosopher and humanist (1883–1955)

Repetition: “Matisse makes a drawing, then he makes a copy of it. He recopies it five times, ten times, always clarifying the line. He’s convinced that the last, the most stripped down, is the best, the purest, the definitive one; and in fact, most of the time, it was the first. In drawing, nothing is better than the first attempt.” —Pablo Picasso, Spanish artist and painter (1881–1973)

Repetition: “Generally speaking, men are influenced by books which clarify their own thought, which express their own notions well, or which suggest to them ideas which their minds are already predisposed to accept.” —Carl Becker, American historian (1873–1945)

Simile: “I use my hands like a sculptor, to mold and shape the sound I want, to clarify.” —Leonard Slatkin, American conductor and composer (1944–)

(1) She is always the first to offer comfort to others in need.

Metaphor: “It may serve as a comfort to us, in all our calamities and afflictions, that he that loses anything and gets wisdom by it is a gainer by the loss.” —Sir Roger L. Estrange, English pamphleteer and author (1616–1704)

Antithesis: “Comfort and prosperity have never enriched the world as much as adversity has.” —Billy Graham, American Christian evangelist (1918–)

(1) Don’t confide in someone to whom you would not loan money.

Antithesis: “We confide in our strength, without boasting of it; we respect that of others, without fearing it.” —President Thomas Jefferson and author of the Declaration of Independence (1743–1826)

Metaphor: “None are deceived but they that confide.” —Benjamin Franklin, American statesman, scientist, philosopher, printer, writer, and inventor (1706–1790)

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

(1) “Claude Monet’s 1873 Boulevard des Capucines records an outsider’s distant glimpse of numerous pedestrians who register not as thoughtful individuals, but as an anonymous crowd of figures whose external surfaces coruscate and dissolve in the ambient light particles that form their atmosphere.” —Nancy Forgione, “Everyday Life in Motion: The Art of Walking in Late-Nineteenth-Century Paris,” Art Bulletin 87, issue 4, December 2005, p. 664–687

(1) “Counsel and conservation are a secondary education, which improve all the virtue, and correct all the vice of the first, and nature itself.” —Edward Hyde Clarendon, British statesman and historian (1609–1674)

(1) His mentor was able to disabuse Trevor of the notion that there was something wrong with networking one’s way to success.

(2) admonish strongly; encourage earnestly by advice or warning; insist; press; push; urge

Metaphor: “Chaos of thought and passion, all confused; Still by himself abused or disabused; Created half to rise, and half to fall; Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all; Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurled, —The glory, jest, and riddle of the world.” —Alexander Pope, English poet (1688–1744)

Simile: “I exhort you also to take part in the great combat, which is the combat of life, and greater than every other earthly combat.” —Plato

(1) A well-placed zinger in a political contest is quite natural, but to gibe with personal attacks is over-the-top behavior.

(2) be compatible, similar, or consistent

(1) You can meliorate a potential tax burden on your children at your death by insurance gifts while you’re alive.

(1) With the approach of the 2012 election, the President has appeared too eager to mollify his base and abandon business interests.

(1) It doesn’t necessarily help nor harm a person to mollycoddle him or her; the overdoing is the problem.

(1) “Victory belongs to the most persevering.” —Napoleon Bonaparte

Metaphor: “The cloud was so dark that it needed all the bright lights that could be turned upon it. But for four years there was a contagion of nobility in the land, and the best blood North and South poured itself out a libation to propitiate the deities of Truth and Justice. The great sin of slavery was washed out, but at what a cost!” —M. E. W. Sherwood, American author (1826–1903); An Epistle to Posterity

(1) When you come down to it, there is too much ratiocination in the debates and too few solutions based on practical common sense.

Alliteration: My recrudesce began with a rebound of recovered vitality concurrent with the repairs to my ranch house.

(1) David’s plan was to seagull out of sight while the party faithful took the heat for the fundraising scandal.

(1) “The new Russian government promised to succor ailing mining, industrial and agricultural giants with trillions of rubles in new credits—and in virtually every sector, sensing the change in political winds, workers staged or threatened strikes to demand more.” —Margaret Shapiro and Fred Hiatt, “Russia Tries Reform—Is it Working?” Washington Post, 1994

(1) The kids tripped along on their way to school.

(1) “Harpring almost wound up at Duke or Northwestern on a football scholarship because his efforts to wheedle a basketball grant-in-aid out of Tech coach Bobby Cremins were going nowhere.” —Alexander Wolff, “Thrills and Spills,” Sports Illustrated 84, issue 12, March 1996, p. 36