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Literary notes about affirm (AI summary)

In literature, affirm is a versatile term used for asserting truth, confirming personal belief, and establishing a basis for argument. Authors use it to lend authority to their observations and opinions—as when a writer declares with certainty that a phenomenon is unmistakable [1] or stresses the need to express conviction in one’s ideas [2]. In philosophical discourse and political treatises, to affirm often signifies more than mere agreement; it operates as a formal statement of a principle or a universally accepted fact, as seen in discussions of statecraft and rationality [3, 4]. At times, the word becomes a vehicle for irony or cautious self-reflection, inviting both endorsement and skepticism about the validity of what is proclaimed [5, 6]. Through these varied deployments—from the setting of a foundational assertion to the subtle nuance of personal introspection—affirm enriches literary language by blending declarative force with the careful calibration of belief [7, 8, 9].
  1. The sun does not more certainly shine in the heavens, than that which I now affirm is true.
    — from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
  2. This I may affirm with a safe conscience, upon my oath of wool.
    — from Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais
  3. They have indeed in this particular very great power; but I affirm that they should not be entrusted with this control in the manner they are.
    — from Politics: A Treatise on Government by Aristotle
  4. And I affirm that there is nothing which is a greater injury to all states than saying or thinking thus.
    — from Laws by Plato
  5. [53] ; I am, because I affirm myself to be; I affirm myself to be, because I am.
    — from Biographia Literaria by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
  6. If you lack initiative, stoutly affirm your ability to begin things, and to push them to a finish.
    — from Pushing to the Front by Orison Swett Marden
  7. asentar , to affirm, to assure, to set forth, to set as a basis.
    — from Heath's Modern Language Series: The Spanish American Reader by Ernesto Nelson
  8. I can affirm the same of Mr. Dryden , and know several of the most refined Writers of our present Age who are of the same Humour.
    — from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson
  9. I have walked about the city several times, and can affirm that its tranquillity is undisturbed.
    — from Memoirs of General William T. Sherman — Complete by William T. Sherman

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