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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]).
  1. 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
  2. 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
  3. 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
  4. 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
  5. 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
  6. 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
  7. 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
  8. “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
  9. 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
  10. These lend a pleasing mystery to the bottom.
    — from Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau

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