Literary notes about Politic (AI summary)
The term "politic" has served a diverse and nuanced role in literature, evolving from denoting the workings of a state to describing personal prudence or appropriateness in action. In many political treatises and philosophical works, such as those by Rousseau, the phrase "body politic" is repeatedly invoked to highlight both the collective organism of society and its inherent limitations ([1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8], [9]). At the same time, authors have often deployed "politic" as a descriptor of judicious behavior, suggesting that it is wise or fitting to act in a certain manner, as seen in character dialogues and literary exercises ([10], [11], [12], [13]). This dual usage enriches the term's meaning, bridging the abstract ideals of political philosophy with the practical counsel of everyday conduct, evident even in playful or ironic contexts within dramatic works and satirical writings ([14], [15]).
- The continuance of such an injustice could not but prove the undoing of the body politic.
— from The Social Contract & Discourses by Jean-Jacques Rousseau - In every body politic there is a maximum strength which it cannot exceed and which it only loses by increasing in size.
— from The Social Contract & Discourses by Jean-Jacques Rousseau - The government is on a small scale what the body politic which includes it is on a great one.
— from The Social Contract & Discourses by Jean-Jacques Rousseau - The body politic, as well as the human body, begins to die as soon as it is born, and carries in itself the causes of its destruction.
— from The Social Contract & Discourses by Jean-Jacques Rousseau - The life-principle of the body politic lies in the sovereign authority.
— from The Social Contract & Discourses by Jean-Jacques Rousseau - The body politic, taken individually, may be considered as an organised, living body, resembling that of man.
— from The Social Contract & Discourses by Jean-Jacques Rousseau - By the social compact we have given the body politic existence and life: we have now by legislation to give it movement and will.
— from The Social Contract & Discourses by Jean-Jacques Rousseau - THE DEATH OF THE BODY POLITIC Such is the natural and inevitable tendency of the best constituted governments.
— from The Social Contract & Discourses by Jean-Jacques Rousseau - Has the body politic an organ to declare its will?
— from The Social Contract & Discourses by Jean-Jacques Rousseau - Situated as I was, it was not politic to insist upon it.
— from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself by Harriet A. Jacobs - First then, of wisdom: the State which we have called into being will be wise because politic.
— from The Republic of Plato by Plato - POLITIC, judicious, prudent, political.
— from Every Man in His Humor by Ben Jonson - It is not politic.
— from The History of a Crime by Victor Hugo - This will gain Access to private lodgings, where yourself May, like a politic dormouse—— BOSOLA.
— from The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster - Since you are pleased, then, most politic sir, to ask my advice, I think you may propose the match to Allworthy yourself.
— from History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding
