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Literary notes about inherently (AI summary)

The adverb "inherently" is employed in literature to underscore qualities or conditions that are essential, natural, and inseparable from a subject’s very being. Writers use it to emphasize that certain traits—be they moral, emotional, physical, or philosophical—are not superficial or contingent, but rather inherent to a person, object, or concept; for instance, describing methods as "inherently immoral" illustrates a quality embedded in their nature ([1]), while noting that facts are "inherently true" suggests an inextricable link between appearance and reality ([2]). Its use often contrasts external circumstances with intrinsic characteristics, as in cases where characters are depicted as naturally affectionate despite a cool exterior ([3]) or when innate dispositions—whether good, wicked, or docile—are highlighted as fundamental to identity ([4], [5]). Overall, the term helps convey that these qualities exist by necessity, shaping the inherent nature of things without recourse to external justification.
  1. The ugly and inherently immoral aspect of such methods cannot affect the recognition of their lawfulness.
    — from The German Spy in AmericaThe Secret Plotting of German Spies in the United States and the Inside Story of the Sinking of the Lusitania by John Price Jones
  2. In all of them the facts are inherently true, by which I mean that they are not only possible but that they have actually happened.
    — from Notes on My Books by Joseph Conrad
  3. Poised, cool, self-possessed, yet inherently affectionate.
    — from The Dark Other by Stanley G. (Stanley Grauman) Weinbaum
  4. But he is inherently selfish, and has no moral courage.
    — from Beacon Lights of History, Volume 07: Great Women by John Lord
  5. She was to them obviously the perfect tool, childlike, flighty, inherently docile, and moved by the least enticement to new anticipations.
    — from Queens of the Renaissance by M. Beresford Ryley

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