Literary notes about abortive (AI summary)
Over time, the term "abortive" in literature has come to signify endeavors that fail to achieve their intended results, carrying with it an inherent sense of incompleteness or premature termination. Often applied to grand schemes or creative experiments, it underscores ambitions that are thwarted from the start—from the unsuccessful founding of a college [1] and experimental pursuits [2, 3] to the bungled chase of a convict [4] or ill-fated conspiracies [5, 6]. Authors also extend the term's reach to describe incomplete creations or ineffective artistic expressions [7, 8] and even use it to characterize lives and essences as lacking fulfillment [9, 10]. In each case, "abortive" serves as a nuanced critique of plans and natural orders that, despite promise, ultimately fall short.
- At present, and for a considerable period to come, any effort to found a college would prove abortive.
— from Toronto of Old by Henry Scadding - that out of an excess of abortive experiments there
— from The Will to Power: An Attempted Transvaluation of All Values. Book I and II by Nietzsche - Nevertheless, we must confess that this religious pursuit of the Life of Reason has been singularly abortive.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana - I proceed, then, from the morning which followed our abortive chase of the convict and our other strange experiences upon the moor.
— from The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle - Shortly after this he was accused of complicity in an abortive conspiracy against the Medici, imprisoned, and put to the question by torture.
— from The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli - But the scheme proving abortive, he endeavoured by presents and promises to engage other kings of the East to make a similar request.
— from The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete by Suetonius - In art, in which the concept is unfruitful, he produces lifeless, stiff, abortive mannerisms.
— from The World as Will and Idea (Vol. 1 of 3) by Arthur Schopenhauer - Can he delight in the Production of such abortive Intelligences, such short-lived reasonable Beings?
— from The Spectator, Volume 1 by Joseph Addison and Sir Richard Steele - If he were mad, it was the consequence, and not the cause, of an aimless and abortive life.
— from Twice-told tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne - So much achieved, yet how abortive is his life!
— from Mosses from an old manse by Nathaniel Hawthorne
