Literary notes about human (AI summary)
Literary authors employ the word "human" to explore the contrasts and complexities inherent in our condition. In certain works, it evokes the ineffable quality of the soul or mind, suggesting an almost prophetic depth within human spirit [1] and underlining the limits of human reason [2, 3]. Elsewhere, it conveys the physical, the tangible—a description of bodily elements and movement [4, 5] or an indictment of human actions and failings [6, 7]. At times, "human" is used to juxtapose the divine and the mortal, emphasizing both the vulnerability and the potential for greatness within us [8, 9, 10]. This layered usage enriches literary discourse by reflecting on our shared frailties, aspirations, and the intricate interplay between the corporeal and the ethereal.
- O my friend, how prophetic is the human soul!
— from Phaedrus by Plato - Proof.—In every human mind there are some adequate ideas, and some ideas that are fragmentary and confused (II. xl. note).
— from Ethics by Benedictus de Spinoza - That is, if the object of the idea constituting the human mind be a body, nothing can take place in that body without being perceived by the mind.
— from Ethics by Benedictus de Spinoza - Thus head, face, eyes, arms, hands, feet, [ 72 ] and other portions of the human frame are ascribed to them.
— from A History of Sanskrit Literature by Arthur Anthony Macdonell - 53 It can only refer to the mental idea of the shape of the members of the human figure.
— from The Practice and Science of Drawing by Harold Speed - I don’t understand such expressions to describe human activity.
— from Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - It was enough to make a body ashamed of the human race.
— from Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain - That which is simple and indivisible by nature human error separates , and transforms from the true and perfect to the false and imperfect.
— from The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius - "But it's not only because he's a genius that I ask you to let me bring him here; it's because he's a human being, and he is ill and poor."
— from The Moon and Sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham - Sooner or later the human being in you will yearn for the common bonds of humanity."
— from The Moon and Sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham
