Literary notes about Impetuosity (AI summary)
In literature, impetuosity is often employed to evoke a sense of unbridled passion and rash, sometimes heroic, action. Authors use the term to characterize youthful exuberance and impulsive behavior, as when a character’s lively temperament is noted with affectionate bemusement [1] or when it propels a decisive, even if reckless, military charge [2]. It frequently captures the push and pull between raw, untempered emotion and the necessity for restraint, whether describing personal follies that lead to regret [3] or contrasting a controlled intellect with a headlong surge of feeling [4]. At other times, impetuosity serves as a marker of forceful ambition or even chaotic energy in the heat of battle, underscoring both the brilliance and perils of acting too swiftly [5], [6]. In a variety of contexts—from personal interactions to epic confrontations—it conveys the dual nature of impulsiveness: as a source of both creative energy and potential self-destruction [7], [8].
- “Why,” said I, trying to check him, and laughing in my turn at his impetuosity, “will this young head never grow any older?
— from Emile by Jean-Jacques Rousseau - And such was their impetuosity as they advanced with hostile spears, that Æbutius was run through the arm and Mamilius struck on the breast.
— from The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08 by Livy - "I find," he continued, his confusion increasing as he spoke, "that I have been acting with my usual foolish impetuosity.
— from Lady Susan by Jane Austen - The coolness of his temper contrasts strongly with the impetuosity of mine, which I cannot conceal.
— from The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - Here was an opening for my plans of offence, and I made use of it with all the brute impetuosity I derived from my active mode of life.
— from The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley - "That I grant," said Don Quixote, "but in this matter of aiding me against knights thou must put a restraint upon thy natural impetuosity."
— from Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra - The deputy restrained the animal’s impetuosity, and the principal ran to assist Mr. Winkle in mounting.
— from The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens - To these characteristics may be added its impetuosity; but we must be careful lest a false application be made of this last.
— from The Art of War by baron de Antoine Henri Jomini