Literary notes about Goal (AI summary)
Writers employ "goal" in multifaceted ways, imbuing it with both literal and symbolic meanings. In adventure narratives, the term marks a tangible endpoint—whether it’s the finish line in a race ([1], [2]) or a predetermined destination in a journey ([3])—and underscores the hero’s progression toward overcoming obstacles. Meanwhile, in philosophical and reflective texts, "goal" becomes an emblem of inner purpose or ultimate aspiration, representing an ideal state of being or moral achievement ([4], [5], [6]). At times, it even serves as a metaphor for the elusive nature of fulfillment and the constant striving inherent in the human condition ([7], [8]).
- Huge ran to the goal and turned back, but Thjalfe had not yet gotten to the middle of the course.
— from The Younger Edda; Also called Snorre's Edda, or The Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson - But the Hare slept on very peacefully; and when at last he did wake up, the Tortoise was near the goal.
— from The Aesop for Children by Aesop - Huckleberry’s hard pantings were his only reply, and the boys fixed their eyes on the goal of their hopes and bent to their work to win it.
— from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Complete by Mark Twain - The praise is called out only to him who is running in the race and not to him who has arrived at the goal.
— from Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche - He has not conceived a highest good, no ultimate goal is within his horizon, and it has never occurred to him to ask what he is living for.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana - The advance of knowledge is an infinite progression towards a goal that for ever recedes.
— from The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion by James George Frazer - What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not a goal: what is lovable in man is that he is an OVER-GOING and a DOWN-GOING.
— from Thus Spake Zarathustra: A Book for All and None by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche - A goal stood before Siddhartha, a single goal: to become empty, empty of thirst, empty of wishing, empty of dreams, empty of joy and sorrow.
— from Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse