Literary notes about all (AI summary)
Throughout literature, the word "all" operates as a powerful device to express totality, inclusiveness, and intensity. It often underscores the completeness of an idea or object—as language moves from extolling "all earthly treasure" to emphasizing that someone could accumulate "all the wealth in the world, and all the power" [1, 2]. The term unites groups and experiences, whether it defines a collective, as when "all Israel" is addressed [3], or broadens the scope of time and action, as in declarations to "live all my days" [4] or to have "all his clothes" perfectly made [5]. In other contexts, "all" functions as a rhetorical intensifier, imbuing statements with universality and finality, evident in phrases like "all help is from heaven" [6] or "all is over" [7]. Its versatile use enriches narrative and philosophical discourse, underlining both the microcosmic details of human endeavor and the vast, often transcendent, nature of existence.
- Thou sovran lady of all earthly treasure, Auspicious Dawn, flush here to-day upon us.
— from A History of Sanskrit Literature by Arthur Anthony Macdonell - He could accumulate all the wealth in the world, and all the power, and all the wisdom that is power.
— from She by H. Rider Haggard - And the word of Samuel came to pass to all Israel.
— from The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete - Then in a gust of confidence and gratitude, “I will live all my days for you, Tom!”
— from The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale by Joseph Conrad - All his clothes were fresh from the tailor’s and were all right, except for being too new and too distinctly appropriate.
— from Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - “All help is from heaven, sir,” said I, “but can you put a stranger in the way to help you?
— from The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe - I have discovered new powers in my situation too late—and now all is over.
— from North and South by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
