Literary notes about Immoderate (AI summary)
The term "immoderate" is employed by many writers to emphasize extremes, whether in quantity, intensity, or passion. In historical works, its use often underscores a natural or inevitable overabundance, as when Rome's decline is attributed to immoderate greatness ([1]) or when overindulgence in food or drink leads to ruin ([2], [3]). Philosophers and moralists extend its meaning to emotional and ethical realms, critiquing excessive ambition or passion, as seen in discussions of immoderate desire for power or the dangers inherent in unchecked feelings ([4], [5], [6]). Even in literary portrayals of human behavior, immoderate expressions—be they of laughter or grief—serve to illustrate characters pushed beyond the bounds of reason ([7], [8]), highlighting the broader theme of imbalance between natural moderation and extreme excess.
- But the decline of Rome was the natural and inevitable effect of immoderate greatness.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - He had, he declared, with venison in one hand and bread in the other, a more immoderate appetite than any well-behaved witch should ever have.
— from The Trail of the Seneca by James A. (James Andrew) Braden - To make up the mess, what immoderate drinking in every place?
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - Ambition is the immoderate desire of power.
— from Ethics by Benedictus de Spinoza - Remember also, that the danger of excess is not confined to any one place, and that immoderate passions always do irreparable damage.
— from Emile by Jean-Jacques Rousseau - You stop me here to inquire whether it is nature which teaches us to take such pains to repress our immoderate desires.
— from Emile by Jean-Jacques Rousseau - Christine cried in reality, but it was immoderate laughter that made her tears flow.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova - Then he altered his note, and became as intemperate in his chagrin, as he had been before immoderate in his mirth.
— from The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom — Complete by T. Smollett
