Literary notes about people (AI summary)
Throughout these varied texts, “people” can mean anything from a crowd gathered in a public space—“the stairs full of people” [1]—to an entire nation characterized by its collective identity, as when discussing “the people” of Sardinia [2] or Russian subjects [3]. Authors also use “people” to express more personal or moral judgments, labeling them as “stupid” [4] or contrasting the strong with the “exceedingly weak” [5]. In religious contexts, such as the Bible references, “people” often stands for a chosen community or followers of a higher power [6, 7]. Furthermore, some writers highlight the distance between individuals and the broader masses, underscoring how “people” can become a faceless collective in large cities [8] or a supportive network surrounding a notable family [9].
- Here I eat a bit, and then in the afternoon took boat and down to Greenwich, where I find the stairs full of people, there being a great riding
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys - Balari, people of Sardinia, i. 334 .
— from The Geography of Strabo, Volume 3 (of 3) by Strabo - The French people are civilised, their Emperor is not: the sovereign of Russia is civilised, his people are not.
— from Napoleon's Letters to Josephine, 1796-1812 by Emperor of the French Napoleon I - “People are stupid and then pay for it.”
— from The Reign of Greed by José Rizal - People have grown weak, exceedingly weak.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of Short Stories by Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov - And he shut up his people under the sword: and he despised his inheritance.
— from The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete - And the people made acclamation, saying: It is the voice of a god, and not of a man.
— from The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete - Why do people hurry to noisy scenes and crowded circles?
— from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft - We talked of the numbers of people that sometimes have composed the household of great families.
— from Boswell's Life of Johnson by James Boswell