Literary notes about Deficiency (AI summary)
In literature, the term deficiency is skillfully employed to indicate not only a literal lack—such as in nutritional or physiological contexts [1, 2, 3, 4]—but also a metaphorical shortfall in character, knowledge, or societal structure [5, 6, 7, 8]. Authors use it to depict missing qualities that range from concrete material inadequacies, as in the failure to supply necessary resources [9, 10, 11], to more abstract elements, such as the insufficiency of learning or natural ability that defines human imperfection [12, 13, 14]. Moreover, deficiency is often portrayed as a condition that necessitates correction or compensation—whether by external intervention or human endeavor [15, 16]—thus inviting a reflection on the broader themes of human limitation and the pursuit of fulfillment [17, 18, 19].
- With respect to the colour of the iris: deficiency of colouring matter is well known to be hereditary in albinoes.
— from Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll - All the vitamines, however, are closely associated with the function of growth, which their deficiency tends to inhibit.
— from Scurvy, Past and Present by Alfred F. Hess - Willcox, W. H. : Treatment and Management of Diseases Due to a Deficiency of Diet, Scurvy and Beriberi, Brit.
— from Scurvy, Past and Present by Alfred F. Hess - The same rule holds for man, who, when deprived of these vitamines, develops the so-called deficiency diseases—typically modern disorders.
— from Scurvy, Past and Present by Alfred F. Hess - To such bodies Pope compares those ill-regulated minds where a deficiency of learning and natural ability is supplied by self-conceit.
— from The Rape of the Lock, and Other Poems by Alexander Pope - And here, at all events, the relation between the frequency of mental deficiency and genius in the two sexes is unquestionable.
— from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. Burgess and Robert Ezra Park - He is painfully conscious of his own deficiency, and painfully anxious, as you must have seen, to hide it from observation.
— from The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins - If they are lacking in the mind, we find every degree of mental deficiency, every variety of insanity.
— from Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic by Henri Bergson - Seine water, rushing plenteous by, will supply the deficiency.
— from The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle - We are just about to supply the deficiency.
— from Toronto of Old by Henry Scadding - To supply the deficiency, the emperor suggested a new tax of five per cent.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - “No head?” as if he had almost expected some other deficiency.
— from The innocence of Father Brown by G. K. Chesterton - I am not overlooking the excuse, whose existence one must admit, for this deficiency in your previous training.
— from A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud - 'I am even a poorer man of business than I am a man, sir,' returned Twemlow, 'and I could hardly express my deficiency in a stronger way.
— from Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens - If you have great talents, industry will improve them: if you have but moderate abilities, industry will supply their deficiency.
— from Table Talk: Essays on Men and Manners by William Hazlitt - If you have great talents, industry will improve them; if you have but moderate abilities, industry will supply their deficiency.
— from How to Get on in the World: A Ladder to Practical Success by A. R. (Alfred Rochefort) Calhoun - It is essentially deficiency, want, care for the maintenance of life.
— from The World as Will and Idea (Vol. 1 of 3) by Arthur Schopenhauer - But the basis of all willing is need, deficiency, and thus pain.
— from The World as Will and Idea (Vol. 1 of 3) by Arthur Schopenhauer - [Pg xviii] (2) Cruelty, which means the maximum deficiency in Compassion, is the mark of the deepest moral depravity.
— from The Basis of Morality by Arthur Schopenhauer
