Literary notes about Concern (AI summary)
In literature, "concern" emerges as a versatile term that captures everything from personal involvement and emotional care to the demarcation of one’s sphere of responsibility. At times, it marks the boundary between private affairs and unwarranted interference, as when a character rebuffs meddling in what does not affect them ([1], [2]). In other contexts, it expresses intense emotional investment or worry—be it the admiration in a self-reflective letter ([3]) or the gravitas of duty calling an older man to serve his country ([4]). The term also stretches to encompass organizational or commercial meanings, delineating entities like a bank or a business ([5]), while in moral or philosophical debates it highlights matters of personal and collective interest ([6], [7]). This multifaceted employment underscores the deep layers inherent in literary portrayals of human engagement with the world.
- “Why should you meddle with what does not concern you?”
— from The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet - On my release and return to Dorjiling, any interference on my part would have been meddling with what was not my concern.
— from Paradise Lost by John Milton - I cannot express to you what I have felt in reading your history of yourself,—how full of pity and concern, and admiration and amusement I have been!
— from The Letters of Jane Austen by Jane Austen - I was sixty years of age when my country called me and commanded me to concern myself with its affairs.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo - Madam, I repeat, your husband was in the employ of the Army Medical Department, and this is a bank, a private, commercial concern.
— from Plays by Anton Chekhov, Second Series by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov - It is of equal concern to men to know them, and it is equally dangerous to be ignorant to them.
— from Pascal's Pensées by Blaise Pascal - As this is the greatest Concern, Men shall be from henceforth liable to the greatest Reproach for Misbehaviour in it.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson
