Literary notes about motion (AI summary)
Motion serves as a multifaceted device in literature, conveying both tangible and abstract ideas. It is used to depict the literal movement of objects, such as celestial bodies, mechanical devices, or natural elements in perpetual change [1, 2, 3, 4, 5], while also evoking the internal shifts of emotion and thought through subtle gestures and rapid, unforeseen actions [6, 7, 8]. At times, motion is even abstracted to represent philosophical or cosmic principles—the relation between matter and energy, or the inexorable force that drives both nature and human progress [9, 10, 11, 12]. This dual usage enriches the narrative by merging physical dynamism with metaphorical significance, creating a literary canvas where every shift in movement can suggest transformation, resistance, or the eternal interplay of forces that shape existence [13, 14].
- But with a downward, tremulous motion thro’ Light, brazen rays, this golden star unto!
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition by Edgar Allan Poe - The astronomers said, [514] "Give us matter, and a little motion, and we will construct the universe.
— from Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson by Ralph Waldo Emerson - They grasped the ropes, the wheel creaked, the enormous capsule of metal started slowly into motion.
— from Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo - Whenever it was possible, I touched the machinery while it was in motion, so as to get a clearer idea how the stones were weighed, cut, and polished.
— from The Story of My Life by Helen Keller - The Nautilus began to sink, following a vertical line, for its screw communicated no motion to it.
— from Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea by Jules Verne - I answered, by a motion of my head, Yes:—and wept.
— from The Thousand and One Nights, Vol. I. - All at once a little motion of her back, like a flutter of wind through a willow, led me to suppose that she was going to cry.
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant - He got in motion slowly, striking the floor with his stick at every step.
— from The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale by Joseph Conrad - Motion is matter affected by another form of force.
— from Know the Truth: A Critique on the Hamiltonian Theory of Limitation by Jesse Henry Jones - Matter was Motion--Motion was Matter--the thing moved.
— from The Education of Henry Adams by Henry Adams - All soul is immortal, for she is the source of all motion both in herself and in others.
— from Phaedrus by Plato - This self-motion he places in the mind alone, and concludes that the first principle of motion is derived from the mind.
— from Cicero's Tusculan Disputations by Marcus Tullius Cicero - The process, in fact, resembles the passage of a wave of 'peristaltic' motion [Pg 117] down the bowels.
— from The Principles of Psychology, Volume 1 (of 2) by William James - For otherwise all these emotions belong only to motion , which one would fain enjoy for the sake of health.
— from Kant's Critique of Judgement by Immanuel Kant
