Finding the right word can be 'epic’ challenge

All of the words that immediately sprung to my mind — awesome, amazing, incredible, fantastic, and, of course, epic — seemed cheap and coarse.

Confronted with a truly epic feat, our immediate response now is to say nothing.

[...] that’s just what our mutual friend said when he saw that I was flummoxed.

The man had worked for decades at an accomplishment, and now he was going to be cheated of congratulations because the appropriate words in the English language had been worn out on the wrong things?

Off we marched to my computer, determined to struggle through the draft of a note.

Someone who wins a Nobel Prize deserves to be congratulated with appropriate language and genuine emotion.

[...] I think modern life is eroding our communication abilities quite enough already, don’t you?

The work you have done for all of these years has deeply inspired the lives of your students, your colleagues, and millions of other people who may never know your name.

[...] that simple, heartfelt note, along with a batch of flowers, is standing in my memory as a bulwark against the enemy of bad communication.