Literary notes about LiE (AI summary)
In literature, the term "lie" is remarkably versatile, playing roles that range from the literal to the abstract. It can denote physical positions or states, as when a character rests in the middle of a bed [1], lies down to sleep [2, 3], or even when landscapes are described as having ruins lying broken [4, 5, 6]. At the same time, "lie" serves as a metaphor for untruth or deception, echoing through lines that dismiss the truth as merely a lie [7, 8, 9, 10]. Additionally, its use extends to positioning in time or space and even in moral or philosophical contexts, where conditions or ideas "lie" beneath the surface [11, 12]. This multiplicity in meaning enriches the narrative, allowing authors to convey both concrete actions and abstract sentiments with a single, evocative word.
- I am going to undress, and then I shall lie in the middle of the bed.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova - I found during my visits that Lahiri Mahasaya did not once lie down to sleep.
— from Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda - I do and shall love her, but, poor wretch, she is now almost ready to lie down.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys - It had fifty-four columns around it, but only six are standing now—the others lie broken at its base, a confused and picturesque heap.
— from The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain - Jason's beach (the modern Yasoun Bouroun) and the three first-named rivers lie between Cotyora and Sinope.
— from Anabasis by Xenophon - These islands lie off the coast of the Sicels and Messinese, and were allies of the Syracusans.
— from The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides - Then I saw the morning sky: Heigho, the tale was all a lie; The world, it was the old world yet, I was I, my things were wet,
— from A Shropshire Lad by A. E. Housman - If one tells a lie a sufficient number of times, one ends by believing it.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova - Yet being but a woman, I forgive thee for the lie, for it was courteously said.
— from She by H. Rider Haggard - If I accustom a servant to tell a lie for ME, have I not reason to apprehend that he will tell many lies for HIMSELF.'
— from Boswell's Life of Johnson by James Boswell - Since the medium in which the motives lie is knowledge, I can only accomplish this by falsifying his knowledge, and this is the lie .
— from The World as Will and Idea (Vol. 1 of 3) by Arthur Schopenhauer - It, the truth of to-morrow, borrows its mode of procedure, battle, from the lie of yesterday.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
