Literary notes about Insuperable (AI summary)
Writers use the term "insuperable" to evoke an obstacle or challenge that appears utterly unconquerable. Its application ranges from describing literal barriers in political and financial contexts—where legislative changes or formidable negotiations produce impassable hurdles [1], [2]—to symbolizing emotional or relational impasses that thwart human connection, as seen in classic literature [3], [4]. In historical and philosophical texts, the word accentuates an almost mythic magnitude of power or adversity, as when ancient authors portray the might of ruling forces [5] or the tangible difficulties of governance [6]. By characterizing challenges as insuperable, authors imbue their narratives with a sense of inevitability and tension, inviting readers to ponder whether any force, be it nature, politics, or personal destiny, can truly be overcome [7].
- In view of the new bank legislation (Federal Reserve Act), no insuperable difficulties would have stood in the way of Page 94 financing the shipment.
— from My Three Years in America by Bernstorff, Johann Heinrich, Graf von - This rash engagement opposed an insuperable bar to all future negotiation.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - Your Christian names are still an insuperable barrier.
— from The Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Comedy for Serious People by Oscar Wilde - The fact that he had made her an offer, and she had refused him, had placed an insuperable barrier between her and him.
— from Anna Karenina by graf Leo Tolstoy - Now those who rule over that animal which is of all the strongest and most powerful, must needs deserve to be esteemed insuperable in power and force.
— from Antiquities of the Jews by Flavius Josephus - There would, in fact, be an insuperable difficulty in ascertaining when force could with propriety be employed.
— from The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton and John Jay and James Madison - “I am in a condition to prove my allegation: an insuperable impediment to this marriage exists.”
— from Jane Eyre: An Autobiography by Charlotte Brontë
