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Literary notes about Infallible (AI summary)

Writers employ "infallible" to emphasize unerring certainty or to satirize claims of absolute authority. In some contexts, it denotes an almost sacred or unchallengeable truth—whether referring to doctrinal claims about a pope’s authority ([1], [2]), the enduring reliability of sacred scriptures ([3]), or the unwavering consistency of philosophical systems ([4]). In contrast, other authors use it ironically to question or undermine supposed perfection, suggesting that even the most accepted standards or judgments can be flawed ([5], [6]). This multifaceted use shows how "infallible" functions both as a term of reverence and as a critical tool, challenging the reader to consider the limits of human—and sometimes divine—certainty ([7], [8]).
  1. That the pope's being infallible was an impossibility, and the pope arrogantly laid claim to what could belong to God only, as a perfect being.
    — from Fox's Book of Martyrs by John Foxe
  2. Now every one knows, that whoever does not believe that the pope is infallible, is a heretic in his opinions.
    — from Fox's Book of Martyrs by John Foxe
  3. The bible is an infallible rule of faith and practice in both cases.
    — from The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors; Or, Christianity Before Christ by Kersey Graves
  4. at the same time a priori—that is, in pure and, therefore, infallible intuition; and thus all causes of illusion and error are excluded.
    — from The Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant
  5. The truth was, that a superstition of his had failed, here, which he and all his comrades had always looked upon as infallible.
    — from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Complete by Mark Twain
  6. At a distance from facts one draws conclusions which appear infallible, which yet when put to the test of reality, vanish like unreal dreams.
    — from The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
  7. But we must not regard them as infallible.
    — from Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims by François duc de La Rochefoucauld
  8. And I, by the same reason, say it is better for men that every man himself should be infallible.
    — from An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume 1 by John Locke

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