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Literary notes about honorable (AI summary)

The word "honorable" is deployed in literature as a marker of high moral character, often evoking images of duty, integrity, and refined social standing. In poetic verse it can elevate a role—casting a woman’s life in a light of noble purpose as in [1]—while historical narratives wield it to confer legitimacy on political or military actions, as in accounts of treaties and appointments [2][3]. Novelists similarly use the term to shape character perception, whether to commend personal virtue or to illustrate societal expectations, as demonstrated in portrayals of gentle, principled figures [4][5][6]. At times, its employment carries an ironic twist, subtly critiquing the very concept of honor by contrasting lofty ideals with human frailty [7][8].
  1. She rose to his requirement, dropped The playthings of her life To take the honorable work Of woman and of wife.
    — from Poems by Emily Dickinson, Three Series, Complete by Emily Dickinson
  2. When at length, after an obstinate struggle, he yielded to the power of the empire, Civilis secured himself and his country by an honorable treaty.
    — from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
  3. Whether the Governor of any other State [Pg 474] had preceded him in a more profitable or honorable appointment, has not yet been discovered.
    — from History of Woman Suffrage, Volume I
  4. Whatever Bogdánich may be, anyway he is an honorable and brave old colonel!
    — from War and Peace by graf Leo Tolstoy
  5. I know very little of General Howard, but believe him to be a true, honorable man.
    — from Memoirs of General William T. Sherman — Complete by William T. Sherman
  6. It is right and honorable for us to love each other.
    — from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself by Harriet A. Jacobs
  7. It leads to spitting; it leads to coarse speech; it must lead to these things so long as it is honorable; comradeship must be in some degree ugly.
    — from What's Wrong with the World by G. K. Chesterton
  8. He considers it honorable not to pay his debts, unless they are gambling debts—that is, somewhat shady.
    — from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant

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