Literary notes about Ingenuity (AI summary)
In literature, ingenuity is often invoked to denote a creative, resourceful spark that drives human enterprise, problem solving, and sometimes ironic commentary. It is celebrated when characters demonstrate resourcefulness in puzzles and technical challenges, as when a teacher lauds a remarkable performance for its inventive dissection of a problem [1] or when clever solutions to mathematical puzzles are applauded [2, 3, 4]. In other contexts, the term assumes a more ambivalent tone—implying that even a well-intended plan might falter when overdependent on technical cleverness, as suggested by remarks on grammatical pedantry or the misplaced resourcefulness of a character [5, 6]. Historical narratives and philosophical reflections also draw on ingenuity to illustrate both the inventive spirit of an age and the intricate interplay between intellect and circumstance [7, 8, 9].
- So impressed was he with the ingenuity of his performance that he set the puzzle to his geometry class as a little study in dissection.
— from Amusements in Mathematics by Henry Ernest Dudeney - It will be found a fascinating little game of patience, and the solution requires the exercise of some ingenuity.
— from Amusements in Mathematics by Henry Ernest Dudeney - They demand the exercise of sagacity, ingenuity, and patience, and what we call "luck" is also sometimes of service.
— from Amusements in Mathematics by Henry Ernest Dudeney - If he had said we were to use four 9's we might at once have written 99 9 / 9 , but the four 7's call for rather more ingenuity.
— from Amusements in Mathematics by Henry Ernest Dudeney - But it is not on words only that grammarians, mere grammarians, will exercise their elaborate and often tiresome ingenuity.
— from The Odyssey by Homer - I like him especially for one master stroke of cant, by which he has attained his reputation for ingenuity.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 1 by Edgar Allan Poe - v. p. 641,) and by the ingenuity of the Abbe Dubos, (Hist.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - See the ingenuity of Truth, who, when she gets a free and willing hand, opens herself faster than the pace of method and discourse can overtake her.
— from Areopagitica by John Milton - They mark, indeed, successive advances in complexity of planning, ingenuity of construction, and elegance of decoration.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson
