Literary notes about Intemperate (AI summary)
The term "intemperate" is used in literature to evoke a sense of excess, lack of moderation, or unchecked passion manifesting in both behavior and speech. Authors employ it to describe characters who fluctuate between extremes—for example, exhibiting wild ranges of emotion from the heights of mirth to the depths of chagrin [1]—or to denote habits that stray into overindulgence without self-control [2, 3]. It also appears in contexts where language or even political discourse is marked by uncompromising zeal or uncontrolled temper, as seen when characters’ vehement outbursts are critiqued for their intemperate nature [4, 5]. Ultimately, its usage across various works—from classical treatises to modern novels—underscores the timeless caution against yielding to impulses that disrupt reason and restraint [6, 7].
- Then he altered his note, and became as intemperate in his chagrin, as he had been before immoderate in his mirth.
— from The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom — Complete by T. Smollett - Like most old-fashion'd people, he drank a glass or two every day, but was no tippler, nor intemperate, let alone being a drunkard.
— from Complete Prose Works by Walt Whitman - They had been married for twenty-two years and had lived happily until about two years ago when his wife began to be rather intemperate in her habits.
— from Dubliners by James Joyce - "You overact your part," said young Wharton, in constant apprehension of discovery; "your zeal is too intemperate."
— from The Spy by James Fenimore Cooper - He abated the intemperate zeal of patriotic juries, and he refused to convict men suspected of disloyalty, without proof.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - Has not the intemperate been censured of old, because in him the huge multiform monster is allowed to be too much at large?
— from The Republic by Plato - Wherefore the temperate man is the friend of God, for he is like Him; and the intemperate man is unlike Him, and different from Him, and unjust.
— from Laws by Plato
