Literary notes about attributes (AI summary)
The word "attributes" in literature is often used to denote the essential qualities or characteristics that define a being, idea, or phenomenon. It functions as both a symbolic and a descriptive tool—symbolizing divine powers or moral virtues on one hand [1][2] and delineating the inherent properties of individuals or classes on the other [3][4]. Authors employ the term to capture the dual nature of objects or persons, drawing a line between external appearances and internal realities [5][6]. In some writings, attributes serve as logical markers to categorize and understand existence, while in others they enrich narrative imagery and convey allegorical meaning [7][8]. This multifaceted usage underscores the term’s importance in bridging material details with abstract, philosophical inquiry throughout literary history.
- The four arms symbolize cardinal attributes, two beneficent, two destructive, indicating the essential duality of matter or creation.
— from Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda - Of all the attributes of the Almighty, goodness is that which it would be hardest to dissociate from our conception of Him.
— from Emile by Jean-Jacques Rousseau - The longing to be shielded, bettered, sympathised with, is one of the attributes of the sex.
— from Sister Carrie: A Novel by Theodore Dreiser - Rogojin attributes her strangeness to other causes, to passion!
— from The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Wherefore of things as they are in themselves God is really the cause, inasmuch as he consists of infinite attributes.
— from Ethics by Benedictus de Spinoza - Thought, therefore, is one of the infinite attributes of God, which express God's eternal and infinite essence (Pt. i., Def. vi.).
— from Ethics by Benedictus de Spinoza - These epithets—these attributes I put from me.
— from Villette by Charlotte Brontë - I. The subject may be enlarged by the addition of attributes, appositives, or objects.
— from A Latin Grammar for Schools and Colleges by George Martin Lane
