Literary notes about Careless (AI summary)
Across literature, “careless” is imbued with a wide spectrum of meanings, reflecting characters’ attitudes and broader social commentaries. It may denote a lack of attention or heedlessness, as when a biblical figure admonishes his sons for their negligence ([1]), or when a character’s indifferent manner is highlighted in everyday interactions ([2], [3]). At times the word conveys a breezy, almost adventurous nonchalance, such as the “careless air” of an idle stroller ([4]), while in other contexts it critiques imprudence—whether in financial recklessness ([5], [6]) or in disregarding consequences ([7]). Moreover, authors often use “careless” not only to sketch personalities with a touch of light-hearted abandon ([8], [9]) but also to underscore moral or social failures, enriching the narrative with both stylistic texture and ethical nuance ([10], [11]).
- And Jacob hearing that food was sold in Egypt, said to his sons: Why are ye careless? 42:2.
— from The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete - “He calls me DEAR Rebecca,” said the maiden to herself, “but it is in the cold and careless tone which ill suits the word.
— from Ivanhoe: A Romance by Walter Scott - I was on that day in the same careless undress as usual, with a long beard and wig badly combed.
— from The Confessions of Jean Jacques Rousseau — Complete by Jean-Jacques Rousseau - Then, having decided, he put his hands in his pockets, and, with the careless air of an idle stroller, he proceeded up the boulevard.
— from The Extraordinary Adventures of Arsène Lupin, Gentleman-Burglar by Maurice Leblanc - If he had been a working man he would have known the value of every farthing, and would not have been so careless whether he lost or won.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of Short Stories by Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov - Surely it is no great feat to assume that a man who treats a fifty-guinea watch so cavalierly must be a careless man.
— from The Sign of the Four by Arthur Conan Doyle - But no reasonable person would believe another rational being could be so careless of consequences as to bring in openly such dangerous material.
— from Lineage, Life and Labors of José Rizal, Philippine Patriot by Austin Craig - 'Then (said Mr. Burke,) let me have claret: I love to be a boy; to have the careless gaiety of boyish days.' JOHNSON.
— from Boswell's Life of Johnson by James Boswell - And at every careless cloud that passed In happy freedom by.
— from Poems, with The Ballad of Reading Gaol by Oscar Wilde - Therefore omit him not; blunt not his love, Nor lose the good advantage of his grace By seeming cold or careless of his will;
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare - The careless profusion of the son was the policy of one reign, and the inevitable ruin both of the army and of the empire.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
