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Literary notes about corrupt (AI summary)

The word "corrupt" in literature often connotes a degeneration from an original, unblemished state, whether referring to moral decay, physical deterioration, or textual degradation. In many writings, it describes characters or institutions that have become deformed by vice or malice—as seen when practices are labeled as infamous and dangerous ([1]) or when a person is depicted as "false and corrupt to the marrow of your bones" ([2]). The term is also used to illustrate a process of decay in materials and even in texts, where original readings are lost due to damage or misinterpretation ([3], [4]). This multiplicity of usage—spanning the corruption of manners and morals as well as the physical and intellectual spoiling of language—demonstrates its versatility in capturing the idea of a decline from purity into disfigurement ([5], [6], [7]).
  1. Their practices were declared to be corrupt, infamous, and dangerous; and a bill was ordered to be brought in for the relief of the unhappy sufferers.
    — from Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay
  2. You have become false and corrupt to the marrow of your bones and fit for nothing but begging and lying!
    — from Project Gutenberg Compilation of Short Stories by Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov
  3. ] Note 110 ( return ) [ {touto megathos}, "as regards attaining the same size," but probably the text is corrupt.
    — from The History of Herodotus — Volume 1 by Herodotus
  4. But the text is probably corrupt, and it is difficult to extract sense from it.
    — from Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England by Saint the Venerable Bede
  5. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal.
    — from Human Traits and their Social Significance by Irwin Edman
  6. What flowed from the noisesome wounds he dealt was not so much blood as corrupt matter.
    — from The Danish History, Books I-IX by Grammaticus Saxo
  7. Art cannot claim to be on a level with philosophy or religion, and may often corrupt them.
    — from The Republic by Plato

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