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Literary notes about Transitory (AI summary)

Writers often employ "transitory" to evoke the fleeting, ephemeral character of feelings, experiences, or even physical states. In one instance, the term highlights a brief alleviation from sorrow, as when a temporary cheer lifts drooping spirits [1]. In other contexts, it serves as a counterpoint to permanence, suggesting that although certain causes or impressions may have significant effects, their actual duration is limited—as seen when monumental structures are perceived as at once recent and transitory [2] or when even profound acts of emotion or courage are marked only by their short-lived nature [3]. The word thus becomes a bridge between the ephemeral conditions of human life and the quest for enduring truths, encouraging readers to reflect on the transient versus the eternal in every facet of existence [4].
  1. It will cheer the drooping spirits of the boys, in a transitory way.
    — from Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World by Mark Twain
  2. In the strength of his constancy, the Pyramids seem to him recent and transitory.
    — from Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson
  3. These feelings are transitory; each day of expectation delayed fills them with fear, and I almost dread a mutiny caused by this despair.
    — from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
  4. But how shall he who feels this, regard himself as absolutely transitory, in contrast to imperishable nature?
    — from The World as Will and Idea (Vol. 1 of 3) by Arthur Schopenhauer

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