Literary notes about VETO (AI summary)
The word “veto” in literature has served as a multifaceted symbol—a force of negation, authority, and at times, dramatic resistance. In epic narratives such as Mickiewicz’s portrayal of Lithuanian struggles ([1], [2], [3]), and in the sweeping historical criticism of Carlyle’s French Revolution ([4], [5], [6], [7], [8], among others), “veto” appears both as a literal mechanism of political blockage and a metaphor for suppressive power. Its usage extends into political treatises by Jefferson and John Stuart Mill ([9], [10], [11], [12]), where it underscores institutional checks and balances, while in philosophical essays by William James and Nietzsche ([13], [14], [15], [16], [17]), the term frames debates about the limits of faith and logic. Through such varied applications, “veto” emerges as a potent literary device representing conflict between individual agency and institutional control.
- Somebody else yelled “Veto,” 134 and others seconded [pg 183] him from the corners.
— from Pan Tadeusz; or, The last foray in Lithuania by Adam Mickiewicz - A Diet, convoked under the forms of a confederacy, in order to avoid dissolution by the liberum veto, was obliged to sanction this partition.
— from Pan Tadeusz; or, The last foray in Lithuania by Adam Mickiewicz - A diet held by a confederacy was not subject to the liberum veto , but adopted decisions by a majority vote.
— from Pan Tadeusz; or, The last foray in Lithuania by Adam Mickiewicz - A still sharper turn is coming; but to this also the answer will be, Veto. Veto after Veto; your thumbscrew paralysed!
— from The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle - Truly a melancholy Set of Decrees, a pair of Sets; paralysed by Veto!
— from The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle - A still sharper turn is coming; but to this also the answer will be, Veto. Veto after Veto; your thumbscrew paralysed!
— from The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle - Saint-Huruge and other heroes of the Veto lie in durance.
— from The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle - Thus were the one Veto cunningly eluded!
— from The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle - This Council seems to have been suggested by the veto power possessed by the King's Privy Council.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - On every decree of his they have a tacit veto, by merely refraining from carrying it into effect.
— from On Liberty by John Stuart Mill - The act and the veto amounted to an appeal to the people, and in an instant the country was on fire.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - Then came the President's veto.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - Now, to most of us religion comes in a still further way that makes a veto on our active faith even more illogical.
— from The Will to Believe, and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy by William James - Clifford's veto, 8 .
— from The Will to Believe, and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy by William James - perhaps even the liberum veto
— from Ecce Homo by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche - "Faith" as an imperative is a veto against science,— in praxi, it means lies at any price.
— from The Twilight of the Idols; or, How to Philosophize with the Hammer. The Antichrist by Nietzsche - In the end it is our faith and not our logic that decides such questions, and I deny the right of any pretended logic to veto my own faith.
— from Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking by William James
