Fifteen Thousand Useful Phrases

A Practical Handbook of Pertinent Expressions, Striking Similes, Literary, Commercial, Conversational, and Oratorical Terms, for the Embellishment of Speech and Literature, and The Improvement of the Vocabulary of Those Persons Who Read, Write, and Speak English

Grenville Kleiser (1868–1953) was a North American author. He was the author of a long list of inspirational books and guides to oratorical success and personal development. Kleiser also worked as an instructor in Public Speaking at Yale Divinity School, Yale University.

Kleiser was born in 1868 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He married Elizabeth Thompson in 1894. Grenville died on August 27, 1953 in New York City.

Grenville Kleiser (1868 - 1935)

000 - Introduction 001 - How To Use This Book 002 - Plan of Study 003 - Useful Phrases: abandoned hope - ample culture 004 - Useful Phrases: amusing artlessness - azure sky 005 - Useful Phrases: babbling gossip - bygone period 006 - Useful Phrases: cabalistic phrase - collateral duties 007 - Useful Phrases: collective wisdom - contingent reasons 008 - Useful Phrases: continuous endeavor - cynical disregard 009 - Useful Phrases: damaging admission - diligently propagated 010 - Useful Phrases: dim comprehension - dynastic insolence 011 - Useful Phrases: eager animosity - entrancing sadness 012 - Useful Phrases: enveloping presence - exultant condition 013 - Useful Phrases: facetious mood - flickering conscience 014 - Useful Phrases: flighty obstinacy - futile babble 015 - Useful Phrases: gabbling reminiscences - gymnastic agility 016 - Useful Phrases: habitual deference - hysterical agitation 017 - Useful Phrases: iconoclastic attitude - incipient fancy 018 - Useful Phrases: incisive critic - inquisitional rack 019 - Useful Phrases: inquisitive observer - isolated splendor 020 - Useful Phrases: jaded sensibility - lying equivocations 021 - Useful Phrases: maddening monotony - meteoric splendors 022 - Useful Phrases: methodical regularity - mythical kingdom 023 - Useful Phrases: naive manner - overworked drudge 024 - Useful Phrases: pacific disposition - political malcontent 025 - Useful Phrases: polluting taints - pyrotechnic outburst 026 - Useful Phrases: quailing culprit - remarkable sagacity 027 - Useful Phrases: remedial measure - ruthless commercialism 028 - Useful Phrases: sacerdotal preeminence - shuddering reluctance 029 - Useful Phrases: shuffling preliminaries - starched sterility 030 - Useful Phrases: starlit eminence - systematic interaction 031 - Useful Phrases: tacit assumption - tyrannical disposition 032 - Useful Phrases: ubiquitous activity - undue predilection 033 - Useful Phrases: undulating hills - unpalatable truth 034 - Useful Phrases: unparalleled atrocities - utmost scorn 035 - Useful Phrases: vacant stupidity - vulnerable foe 036 - Useful Phrases: wabbling enterprise - zoologically considered 037 - Significant Phrases: abashed and ashamed - awkwardness and crudity 038 - Significant Phrases: babel and confusion - civilized and cultured 039 - Significant Phrases: clamorous and wild - cynical and contemptuous 040 - Significant Phrases: dangers and pitfalls - digressive and wanton 041 - Significant Phrases: dilatory and hesitating - dwindle and disappear 042 - Significant Phrases: eagerness and ecstasy - exuberant and infectious 043 - Significant Phrases: fabulous and fabricated - futile and untrustworthy 044 - Significant Phrases: gaiety and grace - hypocrisy and impudence 045 - Significant Phrases: ideas and achievements - indomitable and dogged 046 - Significant Phrases: indorsed and applauded - isolated and detached 047 - Significant Phrases: jabber and chatter - luxury and pomp 048 - Significant Phrases: madness and folly - mystic and wonderful 049 - Significant Phrases: nagging and squabbling - overworked and fagged 050 - Significant Phrases: pains and penalties - puzzled and affected 051 - Significant Phrases: quackery and incompetence - rust and disuse 052 - Significant Phrases: sad and melancholy - spacious and lofty 053 - Significant Phrases: sparkling and spontaneous - sympathetic and consoling 054 - Significant Phrases: taciturn and laconic - tyrant and oppressor 055 - Significant Phrases: unaccountable and grotesque - vulgar and artificial 056 - Significant Phrases: wandering and erratic - zigzag and deviating 057 - Felicitous Phrases: ability, humor, and perspicacity - busy, active, and toiling 058 - Felicitous Phrases: curious, fantastic, and charming - calculated, logical, and dispassionate 059 - Felicitous Phrases: dwarfed, scant, and wretched - danger, difficulty, and hardship 060 - Felicitous Phrases: eagerness, heartiness, and vehemence - fustian, padding, and irrelevancy 061 - Felicitous Phrases: gaunt, desolate, and despoiled - humor, fancy, and susceptibility 062 - Felicitous Phrases: idle, profuse, and profligate - luxurious, whimsical, and selfish 063 - Felicitous Phrases: magnificent, sumptuous, and stately - overriding, arrogant, and quarrelsome 064 - Felicitous Phrases: pain, toil, and privation - puzzles, tangles, and questionings 065 - Felicitous Phrases: quarrels, misunderstandings, and enmities - rush, roar, and shriek 066 - Felicitous Phrases: sacredness, dignity, and loveliness - sympathy, service, and compassion 067 - Felicitous Phrases: talent, scholarship, and refinement - wrinkled, careworn, and pale 068 - Impressive Phrases: able, skilful,... - business, profession,... 069 - Impressive Phrases: candid, sincere,... - dull, heavy,... 070 - Impressive Phrases: earth, air,... - gross, academic,.. 071 - Impressive Phrases: habit, custom,... - lucidity, impressiveness,... 072 - Impressive Phrases: malice, anger,... - purpose, meaning,... 073 - Edit: Impressive Phrases: quack, imposture,... - symmetry, proportion,.. 074 - Edit: Impressive Phrases: tact, courtesy,... - worry, annoyance,... 075 - Prepositional Phrases of: abandon of spontaneity - business of life 076 - Prepositional Phrases of: cadences of delirium - dust of defeat 077 - Prepositional Phrases of: earnestness of enthusiasm - futility of pride 078 - Prepositional Phrases of: gaiety of spirit - irony of life 079 - Prepositional Phrases of: jangle of sounds - overflow of vitality 080 - Prepositional Phrases of: page of desolation - ruts of conventionality 081 - Prepositional Phrases of: sadness of soul - system of aspersion 082 - Prepositional Phrases of: taint of megalomania - zone of delusion 083 - Prepositional Phrases by: affected by externals - hushed by denial 084 - Prepositional Phrases by: impelled by duty - wrenched by emotions 085 - Prepositional Phrases in: absorbed in meditation - kept in abeyance 086 - Prepositional Phrases in: landmarks in memory - weak in conception 087 - Prepositional Phrases into: abashed into silence - goaded into action 088 - Prepositional Phrases into: hushed into silence - withdraw into solitude 089 - Prepositional Phrases to: addicted to flattery - hostile to progress 090 - Prepositional Phrases to: impervious to suggestion - yield to reason 091 - Prepositional Phrases with: abounding with plenty - intoxicated with joy 092 - Prepositional Phrases with: kindle with enthusiasm - work with zeal 093 - Business Phrases 094 - Literary Expressions: A bitterness crept into her face - A nimble-witted opponent 095 - Literary Expressions: A painful thought was flooding his mind - A wordless farewell 096 - Literary Expressions: Absolutely vulgarized by too perpetual a parroting - Awaiting his summons to the eternal silence 097 - Literary Expressions: Bandied about from mouth to mouth - Dull black eyes under their precipice of brows 098 - Literary Expressions: Earth danced under a heat haze - Guilty of girlish sentimentality 099 - Literary Expressions: Half choked by a rising paroxysm of rage - Humiliating paltriness of revenge 100 - Literary Expressions: I capitulated by inadvertence - Kiss-provoking lips 101 - Literary Expressions: Laden with the poignant scent of the garden honeysuckle - Rudely reminded of life's serious issues 102 - Literary Expressions: Sacrificed to a futile sort of treadmill - Swift summer into the autumn flowed 103 - Literary Expressions: Taking the larger sweeps in the march of mind - The hungry curiosity of the mind 104 - Literary Expressions: The idiosyncratic peculiarities of thought - The swing of the pendulum through an arch of centuries 105 - Literary Expressions: The tempered daylight of an olive garden - Twilight creeps upon the darkening mind 106 - Literary Expressions: Unapproachable grandeur and simplicity - Your mind enthroned in the seventh circle of content 107 - Striking Similes: A blind rage like a fire swept over him - And the smile she softly uses fills the silence like a speech 108 - Striking Similes: As a child in play scatters... - Awkward as a cart-horse 109 - Striking Similes: Babbling like a child - Dull as champagne 110 - Striking Similes: Each like a corpse within its grave - Great scarlet poppies lay in drifts... 111 - Striking Similes: Hair as harsh as tropical grass and gray as ashes - Hushed like a breathless lyre 112 - Striking Similes: I had grown pure as the dawn and the dew - Kingdoms melt away like snow 113 - Striking Similes: Laboring like a giant - Like a yellow silken scarf the thick fog hangs 114 - Striking Similes: Like an alien ghost I stole away - Like sweet thoughts in a dream 115 - Striking Similes: Like the awful shadow of some unseen power - Lovely the land unknown... 116 - Striking Similes: March on my soul nor like the laggard stay - Quivering like an eager race-horse to start 117 - Striking Similes: Rage, rage ye tears, that never more should creep... - Swifter than the twinkling of an eye 118 - Striking Similes: Talking and thinking became to him... - The music almost died away... 119 - Striking Similes: The name that cuts into my soul like a knife - Then the lover sighing like furnace 120 - Striking Similes: Theories sprouted in his mind like mushrooms - Turning easily and securely as on a perfect axle 121 - Striking Similes: Unbends like a loosened bow - Youth like a summer morn 122 - Conversational Phrases: A most extraordinary idea! - Human nature interests me very much indeed 123 - Conversational Phrases: I admire your foresight - I could never forgive myself for that 124 - Conversational Phrases: I dare say your intuition is quite right - I seem to have heard that sentiment before 125 - Conversational Phrases: I shall at once proceed to forget it - It has never occurred to me 126 - Conversational Phrases: It is a curious fact - It would take too long to formulate my thought 127 - Conversational Phrases: Join us, please, when you have time - Surely you would not countenance that 128 - Conversational Phrases: Tell me in what way you want me to help you - True, I forgot! 129 - Conversational Phrases: Undeniably true - Would you mind telling me your opinion? 130 - Conversational Phrases: Yes and no - Your statement is somewhat startling 131 - Public Speaking Phrases: A fact of vast moment - And next I would ask 132 - Public Speaking Phrases: And now allow me to call attention - Away then with the notion 133 - Public Speaking Phrases: Be assured, then - But it has been suggested to me 134 - Public Speaking Phrases: But it is a fact - By this time it will be suspected 135 - Public Speaking Phrases: Can it be supposed - Granting all this 136 - Public Speaking Phrases: Had I time for all that might be said - However, it is to me a very refreshing thing 137 - Public Speaking Phrases: I abide by my statement - I am willing to know 138 - Public Speaking Phrases: I anticipate with pleasing expectation - I distrust all general 139 - Public Speaking Phrases: I do again and again urge upon you - I hasten to concede 140 - Public Speaking Phrases: I have a dark suspicion - I hope you will not accuse me 141 - Public Speaking Phrases: I imagine that no one will be disposed - I rejoice to think I remark here 142 - Public Speaking Phrases: I remember a reference made - I thank you very sincerely for the honor 143 - Public Speaking Phrases: I think I am correct in saying - I yielded to the earnest solicitations 144 - Public Speaking Phrases: If any man be so persuaded - In widening our view 145 - Public Speaking Phrases: Indeed, can anyone tell me - It is my present purpose 146 - Public Speaking Phrases: It is natural to ask the question - It may still more probably be said 147 - Public Speaking Phrases: It must be a cause of delight - Just the reverse is true 148 - Public Speaking Phrases: Language is inadequate to voice my appreciation - My regret is intensified by the thought 149 - Public Speaking Phrases: Nay, I boldly say - Now, you will understand from this 150 - Public Speaking Phrases: Observe again - Surely it is not too much for me to say 151 - Public Speaking Phrases: Take another instance - The whole story of civilization 152 - Public Speaking Phrases: Then again, in corroboration - Think of the cool disregard 153 - Public Speaking Phrases: This absurdity arises - Very strange is this indeed 154 - Public Speaking Phrases: We all agree as to - What strikes the mind so forcibly 155 - Public Speaking Phrases: What, then, are we to believe - Your presence seems to say 156 - Miscellaneous Phrases: A bewildering labyrinth of facts - A pleasant flow of appropriate language 157 - Miscellaneous Phrases: A pompous failure - Ample scope for the exercise of his astonishing gifts 158 - Miscellaneous Phrases: An abandoned and exaggerated grief - Awaited with feverish anxiety 159 - Miscellaneous Phrases: Bandied to and fro - Dwindled to alarmingly small dimensions 160 - Miscellaneous Phrases: Easy-going to the point of lethargy - Hopelessly belated in its appearance 161 - Miscellaneous Phrases: I adjured him - Its dominating and inspiring influence 162 - Miscellaneous Phrases: Jealous and formidable foes - Quixotically generous about money 163 - Miscellaneous Phrases: Radiantly and transparently happy - Swift and vehement outbursts of feeling 164 - Miscellaneous Phrases: Take root in the heart - The sycophants of the rich