Literary notes about Productive (AI summary)
The term “productive” carries a remarkably versatile significance in literature, functioning both as a descriptor of tangible output and as a metaphor for intangible, transformative effects. In historical and economic writings, it commonly relates to the bounty of land or the efficiency of labor, as seen when authors discuss land yielding abundant crops [1, 2, 3] or when productive labor underpins economic theory [4, 5]. At the same time, many writers employ the word to evoke the emergence of ideas and consequences—where a cause leads to noteworthy results, even in the realm of creativity or personal transformation [6, 7, 8]. Whether speaking of a solitary state of mind that fosters inner productivity [9] or the use of evocative imagery that generates deep emotional responses [10, 11], “productive” effectively bridges the concrete and abstract, contributing both to the physical, measurable world and to the spirit of ingenuity and renewal in literature.
- You have already marked off the four bigahs of the most productive land; and the Amin has, to-day, marked off the remaining part.
— from Nil Darpan; or, The Indigo Planting Mirror, A Drama. by Dinabandhu Mitra - Silver mining was her sole productive industry.
— from Roughing It by Mark Twain - The lead mines are very productive, and of wide extent.
— from Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain - OF THE ACCUMULATION OF CAPITAL, OR OF PRODUCTIVE AND UNPRODUCTIVE LABOUR.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith - The funds for maintaining productive labour being the same, the demand for it would be the same.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith - The first idea, that is presented to the mind, is that of the cause or productive principle.
— from A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume - Despair, pushed far enough, completes the circle, so to speak; and becomes a kind of genuine productive hope again.
— from The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle - This fiction was productive of the most beneficial effects.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - —If you feel great and productive in solitude, society will belittle and isolate you, and vice versa .
— from The Dawn of Day by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche - First day evening.—This afternoon has been productive of adventures in the true sense of the word.
— from American Historical and Literary Curiosities: Second Series, Complete by J. Jay Smith - And just here the fictionist, the poet, and the public speaker will see the value of productive imagery.
— from The Art of Public Speaking by Dale Carnegie and J. Berg Esenwein
