Literary notes about pleasing (AI summary)
The term “pleasing” in literature often conveys a spectrum of positive qualities—from visual appeal and agreeable manners to actions that earn divine favor. In many works, it describes scenes or objects that delight the senses, such as a sunrise that is “pleasing in the highest degree” ([1]) or a cityscape that offers a “pleasing sight” to mariners ([2]). At the same time, it characterizes personal attributes and behaviors; a character might be noted for a “pleasing personality” or “engaging manners” ([3], [4]), while actions are sometimes depicted as “pleasing in the sight of the Lord” or as fulfilling a duty that is inherently agreeable ([5], [6], [7]). Such varied use emphasizes its role in evoking both aesthetic satisfaction and moral approval, enriching descriptions by appealing simultaneously to the senses and to ethical sensibilities ([8], [9], [10]).
- The appearance of the city at sunrise was pleasing in the highest degree.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - The city is not large, but beautifully built, and a most pleasing sight to mariners who are sailing by the coast.
— from The Geography of Strabo, Volume 3 (of 3) by Strabo - There is no art like that of a beautiful behavior, a fine manner, no wealth greater than that of a pleasing personality.
— from Pushing to the Front by Orison Swett Marden - He was possessed of a handsome person and pleasing manners, and was a general favorite in the factory.
— from Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe - Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh: not serving to the eye, as pleasing men: but in simplicity of heart, fearing God.
— from The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete - And he did that which was pleasing in the sight of the Lord, according to all that David his father had done.
— from The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete - I beseech thee, O Lord, remember how I have walked before thee in truth, and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is pleasing before thee.
— from The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete - “It was not I but Ancilla who liked it, and as I preferred pleasing her to pleasing myself, I gave in to her taste without any difficulty.”
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova - It creeps upon human souls, and flatters them with pleasing hopes, till it leads them about to the place where it will be too hard for them.
— from Antiquities of the Jews by Flavius Josephus - These lend a pleasing mystery to the bottom.
— from Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau