Literary notes about content (AI summary)
In literature, the word "content" is employed both as a marker of internal satisfaction and as a reference to the substance or material of discourse. Authors use it to depict a state of acceptance or fulfillment, as when a character is described as being "melancholy to my heart’s content" [1] or simply "content to stay" despite discomfort [2]. At the same time, "content" can denote the essential material of a work, underscoring how the substance of thought or narrative can be as significant as its presentation, a notion explored in discussions of editorial or intellectual substance [3, 4]. Even in brief expressions of personal resolve—choosing to be content with what one possesses—this term reflects a nuanced balance between emotional state and tangible substance, exemplified in reflections of self-acceptance and philosophical reasoning [5, 6].
- I then left the Nosnibors, took a lodging in the town, and became melancholy to my heart’s content.
— from Erewhon; Or, Over the Range by Samuel Butler - I’m quite content to stay here—only I am so hot and thirsty.
— from Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll and Alice Gerstenberg - Enemy officials and private persons were known to read these, and it was possible to do a great deal toward influencing editorial content.
— from Psychological Warfare by Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger - An account of the nature and the mutual relation of these two, forms the main content of the system.
— from A History of Sanskrit Literature by Arthur Anthony Macdonell - For my part, I prefer to be quiet rather than clever: give me content, even if I am not to be so wide in my range.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne - A fiction is too easy a way out to afford content.
— from How We Think by John Dewey
