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Literary notes about Insecure (AI summary)

In literature, the word insecure is employed to capture both tangible instability and intangible vulnerability. It often describes a personal state of emotional unease, as in the case of characters who feel deeply unsettled and fragile [1, 2], while equally evoking images of physical or structural precariousness that threaten stability [3, 4, 5]. The term extends its reach to social and political realms too, suggesting that the foundations of power and fortune are subject to sudden shifts and uncertainties [6, 7, 8]. In a broader sense, it encapsulates the inherent instability of existence itself, reminiscent of reflections on life's ephemeral and unpredictable nature [9, 10].
  1. Jane was easily upset and felt terribly insecure.
    — from When You Don't Know Where to TurnA Self-Diagnosing Guide to Counseling and Therapy by Steven J. Bartlett
  2. I called myself free, and sometimes felt so; but I knew I was insecure.
    — from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself by Harriet A. Jacobs
  3. And, for the first time, here I stand On insecure foundation.
    — from Faust [part 1]. Translated Into English in the Original Metres by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
  4. So the ladder, a rather rotten and insecure one, was obtained, and after some difficulty placed against the wall.
    — from The Doctor of Pimlico: Being the Disclosure of a Great Crime by William Le Queux
  5. The buildings looked very insecure, and threatened every moment to float off.
    — from Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain
  6. Thus I leave thee a vast estate, of which I am well content, but I am deeply concerned, inasmuch as I leave it thee unsettled and insecure.
    — from The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli
  7. [114] It would [p. 114] therefore itself cause a scandal, and make the autonomy of all states insecure.
    — from Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Essay by Immanuel Kant
  8. As a matter of fact, never since this country commenced to make history has our commercial supremacy been in so rotten and insecure a position.
    — from A Prince of Sinners by E. Phillips (Edward Phillips) Oppenheim
  9. Accidents and disease were so prevalent that death was always near and life insecure.
    — from Our Legal Heritage, King AEthelbert, 596 to King George III, 1775 by S. A. Reilly
  10. The surest thing is death, the most insecure thing is life.”
    — from Legends of the Patriarchs and Prophets And Other Old Testament Characters from Various Sources by S. (Sabine) Baring-Gould

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