Literary notes about arrogant (AI summary)
Literary works employ "arrogant" in a variety of nuanced ways that both highlight individual hubris and critique institutional or philosophical pretensions. Authors depict characters whose excessive self-regard alienates them from others—as seen when an individual is characterized by a disdainful, overbearing demeanor [1, 2]—while others use the term to illustrate the corrupting influence of pride on power and reason [3, 4]. At times, the label extends to abstract constructs and even mythological or divine entities, suggesting that a sense of superiority can be as fatal to personal integrity as to communal harmony [5, 6]. This multiplicity of meanings invites readers to consider arrogance as both a personal flaw and a broader societal warning.
- Sir Arrogant is here, and I am glad to say, has been laid by the heels here.
— from Bleak House by Charles Dickens - Lydgate's conceit was of the arrogant sort, never simpering, never impertinent, but massive in its claims and benevolently contemptuous.
— from Middlemarch by George Eliot - But once indulged, divination is apt to grow arrogant and dogmatic.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana - This arrogant power, the enemy of reason, who likes to rule and dominate it, has established in man a second nature to show how all-powerful she is.
— from Pascal's Pensées by Blaise Pascal - We have seen a striking instance of the manner in which this divinity punishes the proud and arrogant in the history of Niobe.
— from Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome by E. M. Berens - Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant.
— from The Art of War by active 6th century B.C. Sunzi
