Literary notes about Endure (AI summary)
In literature, "endure" is employed to convey the capacity to withstand hardship and the inevitability of suffering, as well as the fortitude to persist despite overwhelming challenges. It is often used to illustrate both the physical and moral trials characters face—a call to embrace burdensome destiny or to bear life's inevitable adversities. For instance, the exhortation to labor and not merely seek ease [1] suggests endurance as an essential part of one’s duty, while the notion that one might “endure” to the point of diminishing hope or identity [2] reveals a more existential weariness. At times the term captures the persistence required to bear pain, whether in moments of personal trial [3] or against the relentless march of time [4, 5], thereby highlighting its versatile role as both a beacon of unwavering perseverance and a reflection on the limits of human resilience.
- Thou art called to endure and to labour, not to a life of ease and trifling talk.
— from The Imitation of Christ by à Kempis Thomas - For though he rejoices that he endures, he had rather there were nothing for him to endure.
— from The Confessions of St. Augustine by Bishop of Hippo Saint Augustine - And would that I might endure his agony as well as mine!"
— from The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne - Strike a glass, and it will not endure an instant; simply do not strike it, and it will endure a thousand years.
— from Orthodoxy by G. K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton - Why then shouldest thou so earnestly either seek after these things, or fly from them, as though they should endure for ever?
— from Meditations by Emperor of Rome Marcus Aurelius
