Literary notes about Solidity (AI summary)
The term “solidity” in literature is often employed to evoke both a tangible sense of physical mass and an abstract quality of steadfastness. In some passages it is used to describe the inherent resistance or impenetrability of matter, as when Hume and Locke analyze the very nature of physical substance ([1], [2], [3]), yet its reach extends beyond mere materiality. At times authors invoke solidity to convey reliability or depth in character, suggesting that a person’s moral or intellectual foundation may be described as possessing a palpable firmness ([4], [5], [6]). Other writers use it to articulate the enduring quality of structures or the unyielding character of nature, blurring the line between sensory perception and conceptual stability ([7], [8], [9]). Furthermore, solidity is sometimes interwoven with other primary qualities—extension, motion, and resistance—to frame the complete picture of both physical and philosophical substance ([10], [11], [12]).
- This exact conformity of experience to our reasoning is a convincing proof of the solidity of that hypothesis, upon which we reason.
— from A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume - THAT WHICH THUS HINDERS THE APPROACH OF TWO BODIES, WHEN THEY ARE MOVED ONE TOWARDS ANOTHER, I CALL SOLIDITY.
— from An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume 1 by John Locke - It is impossible, therefore, that the idea of solidity can depend on either of them.
— from A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume - Knowing the solidity of her character he did not treat her hints altogether as idle sounds.
— from The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy - 'How wild-brained!' said Lorenzo; 'With so excellent an heart, what pity that He possesses so little solidity of judgment!'
— from The Monk: A Romance by M. G. Lewis - Without depth of intellect or solidity of character, he was at once a philosopher, a statesman, a scholar, and a fascinating talker.
— from The Rape of the Lock, and Other Poems by Alexander Pope - The walls stood up enormously high, covered with tufts of grass and prickly weeds, and had the solidity that is bestowed by centuries.
— from The conquest of Rome by Matilde Serao - These stones, which show at each end, are called διἁτονοι, and by their bonding powers they add very greatly to the solidity of the walls.
— from The Ten Books on Architecture by Vitruvius Pollio - The better the foundation of sand mortar that is laid on, the stronger and more durable in its solidity will be the stucco.
— from The Ten Books on Architecture by Vitruvius Pollio - Every property of matter is a school for the understanding,its solidity or resistance, its inertia, its extension, its figure, its divisibility.
— from Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson - The idea of motion depends on that of extension, and the idea of extension on that of solidity.
— from A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume - The first are those of the figure, bulk, motion and solidity of bodies.
— from A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume
