Literary notes about Proportionate (AI summary)
Across literature, the term "proportionate" has been employed to express a balanced relationship or a measure of equivalence between elements, whether physical, ethical, or abstract. In some works, its usage highlights fairness and appropriate scaling—the coffee growers are expected to contribute in a manner proportionate to the benefits they reap [1], while judges are urged to consider rewards proportionate to the happiness engendered by one’s efforts [2, 3]. Philosophers like Santayana and Rousseau extend the idea into realms of mental and moral balance, arguing that power and representation or punishment must be proportionate to their causes and results [4, 5, 6]. Additionally, in scientific and practical contexts such as those discussed by Galen or Dewey, "proportionate" quantifies relationships in natural phenomena and economic values [7, 8, 9]. Thus, whether addressing natural processes, societal duties, or ethical judgments, the word serves as a linguistic tool to underscore the necessity of harmony and equivalence in diverse domains [10, 11, 12, 13].
- Efforts are being made to have the coffee growers of other countries contribute on a basis proportionate to the benefit they derive.
— from All About Coffee by William H. Ukers - Shall we say, then, that the reward should be proportionate to the amount of voluntary effort for a good end?
— from The Methods of Ethics by Henry Sidgwick - Shall we say that these judges are to take the value of a service as proportionate to the amount of happiness produced by it?
— from The Methods of Ethics by Henry Sidgwick - Power in the mind is exactly proportionate to representative scope, and representative scope to rational activity.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana - To correct this imperfection we feign a closed circle of personal retributions, exactly proportionate to personal deserts.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana - THIRD MAXIM.—The pity we feel for others is proportionate, not to the amount of the evil, but to the feelings we attribute to the sufferers.
— from Emile by Jean-Jacques Rousseau - How the humours are formed from food taken into the veins: when heat is in proportionate amount, blood results;
— from Galen: On the Natural Faculties by Galen - Its quantity increases so that its proportionate value is very different.
— from Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education by John Dewey - And, therefore, if this be the case, we must suppose blood to be the outcome of proportionate, and yellow bile of disproportionate heat.
— from Galen: On the Natural Faculties by Galen - It may be safely trusted as proportionate and of good issues, so it be faithfully imparted, but God will not have his work made manifest by cowards.
— from Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson by Ralph Waldo Emerson - In thus meeting the world the soul without experience shows a fine courage proportionate to its own vigour.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana - For a monarchical State to have a chance of being well governed, its population and extent must be proportionate to the abilities of its governor.
— from The Social Contract & Discourses by Jean-Jacques Rousseau - “I will exert myself, and if it is in my power to seize the monster, be assured that he shall suffer punishment proportionate to his crimes.
— from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
