Literary notes about Presumption (AI summary)
In literature, "presumption" is a multifaceted term that conveys both an overstepping of boundaries and an audacious confidence. Authors use it to signal impudence or bold self-assurance, as when a character is chided for speaking out of turn with irreverence [1] or when legal and political contexts require careful inference, suggesting that no proof can counteract a deeply embedded presumption [2]. At times the term captures the arrogance of individuals who hazard claims beyond their rightful place, whether in personal relationships [3] or in the assertion of societal norms and laws [4, 5]. It may also serve as a subtle critique of behavior—implying that such boldness, though sometimes admirable, ushers in the potential for error or downfall [6, 7]—thereby reflecting the moral and social complexities inherent in human character.
- Suleiman-bin-Daoud heard one say to the other, ‘I wonder at your presumption in talking like this to me.
— from Just so stories by Rudyard Kipling - It is also against Law, to say that no Proofe shall be admitted against a Presumption of Law.
— from Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes - “I know my own character,” I said, “and without undue presumption, I think I may say that I am worthy of a woman’s love.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova - The presumption that the second word was not added without some meaning is seconded by the unreasonableness of making every wilful trespass criminal.
— from The Common Law by Oliver Wendell Holmes - For as to the Forfeiture of them, the Law will admit no proofe against the Presumption in Law, grounded upon his flight."
— from Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes - that was a presumption at the most, not a proof.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo - An act of so much precipitancy and presumption would seal the downfall of precocious intellect forever.
— from The Last of the Mohicans; A narrative of 1757 by James Fenimore Cooper
