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Literary notes about action (AI summary)

The term "action" in literature assumes a rich and varied role, serving as both a marker for physical events and as an expression of abstract intent or state of being. It can denote concrete military maneuvers or battles, as when historical accounts record engagements at sea and on land [1][2][3], while also embodying the internal dynamics of thought, purpose, and moral character in philosophical and poetic works [4][5][6]. Furthermore, writers use "action" to highlight spontaneity and the unfolding of events in dramatic narratives, whether emphasizing the timing of events [7], the nature of immediate responses in social interactions [8], or the broader interplay between cause and effect [9]. Thus, across genres the word enriches the narrative by linking the tangible with the conceptual, illustrating its enduring versatility in text.
  1. He was mortally wounded in the action with the Dutch off Harwich, June, 1665.
    — from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys
  2. The [304] English lost two ships which ran upon a shoal (a), and were hopelessly wrecked; their losses in action were slight.
    — from The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660-1783 by A. T. Mahan
  3. During this service, the most perilous action occurred in which he was ever engaged.
    — from The Life of Horatio, Lord Nelson by Robert Southey
  4. Its true being is its action, nor can we possibly conceive it as having any other meaning.
    — from The World as Will and Idea (Vol. 1 of 3) by Arthur Schopenhauer
  5. That thing is called free, which exists solely by the necessity of its own nature, and of which the action is determined by itself alone.
    — from Ethics by Benedictus de Spinoza
  6. Observe how Antony becomes his flaw, And what thou think'st his very action speaks In every power that moves.
    — from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
  7. Events before the opening of the action in Hamlet 401 Note B .
    — from Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth by A. C. Bradley
  8. But because I'm told that I have been arrested - and I am under arrest - it forces me to take some action, and to do so for my own sake.
    — from The Trial by Franz Kafka
  9. What is called hypnotic suggestion is nothing but the artificial selection of one idea to the exclusion of all others, so that it passes into action.
    — from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. Burgess and Robert Ezra Park

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