Literary notes about Excusable (AI summary)
The word "excusable" has been deployed by literary authors as a nuanced qualifier that assesses actions and motives in a variety of contexts, from moral failings and personal oversights to legal and philosophical dilemmas. In many works, it functions to indicate that under certain circumstances, behaviors that might otherwise be criticized are deemed understandable—even commendable or necessary—as when military blunders or personal mistakes are justified ([1], [2], [3]). Some authors use the term to distinguish between faults that, due to inherent limitations or situational pressures, are forgivable ([4], [5], [6]), while others contrast excusable behavior against actions that overstep acceptable bounds ([7], [8]). Whether in reflections on personal integrity, cultural customs, or the broader human condition, "excusable" marks a space where error and imperfection are acknowledged as part of life’s spectrum, inviting readers to reconsider judgment in light of context ([9], [10], [11]).
- He has done a thing not only excusable, according to the military laws of this age, but necessary and (as we are of opinion) commendable.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne - But it was excusable in him, that he should forget part of an order, in his present wearied condition.
— from Middlemarch by George Eliot - " "My mistake is excusable," said Will.
— from Middlemarch by George Eliot - Such ignorance, however, as that which prevailed in the Southern ranks is not always excusable.
— from Aesop's Fables by Aesop - But reason accusing our cowardice for fearing a thing so sudden, so inevitable, and so insensible, we take the other as the more excusable pretence.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne - 14.] would be more excusable, were it compensated by any degree of solidity and satisfaction in the other parts of our reasoning.
— from A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume - Will we remove from them all occasion of wishing our death though no occasion of so horrid a wish can either be just or excusable?
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne - If treachery can be in any case excusable, it must be only so when it is practised to chastise and betray treachery.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne - It is surely excusable that this admiration should through misunderstanding gradually rise to the height of fanaticism.
— from Kant's Critique of Judgement by Immanuel Kant - Now all this is very natural in students of philosophy such as I have described, and also, as I was just now saying, most excusable.
— from The Republic by Plato - Men, indeed, who insist on their common superiority, having only this sexual superiority, are certainly very excusable.
— from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft
