Literary notes about Inveigh (AI summary)
The word "inveigh" has been used in literature to convey varying intensities of criticism and denunciation. In classical texts, it can serve as a tool for rigorous rational debate—as in Lucretius, where reason is marshaled against outdated norms [1]—or manifest as a tempered rebuke, where restraint is prized over anger, as seen in Plutarch’s reflections [2]. Cicero employs it with a note of irony, suggesting that even the most virtuous minds are not immune from vehement criticism [3], while in adventure fiction, as in Verne’s narrative, inveigh becomes a means for expressing justified frustration with fate [4]. Moreover, Montaigne’s essays reveal its capacity to target not individuals but the very nature of art and broader societal follies [5], and in theological discourse, Saint Augustine’s application underscores its power in challenging deeply held religious beliefs [6].
- " Justly, I fancy, would she reason thus, Justly inveigh and gird: since ever the old Outcrowded by the new gives way, and ever
— from On the Nature of Things by Titus Lucretius Carus - For nothing makes rebuke less painful or more beneficial than to refrain from anger, and to inveigh against wrong-doing mildly and kindly.
— from Plutarch's Morals by Plutarch - And indeed the Epicureans, those best of men—for there is no order of men more innocent—complain that I take great pains to inveigh against Epicurus.
— from Cicero's Tusculan Disputations by Marcus Tullius Cicero - The detective had, indeed, good reasons to inveigh against the bad luck which pursued him.
— from Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne - I do not attack them; ‘tis their art I inveigh against, and do not much blame them for making their advantage of our folly, for most men do the same.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne - Of the kind of happiness and life truly delighted in by those who inveigh against the Christian religion.
— from The City of God, Volume I by Bishop of Hippo Saint Augustine
