Literary notes about enforce (AI summary)
Throughout literature, “enforce” is employed with remarkable versatility, conveying both the imposition of external authority and the urging of internal resolve. In some works, it is used to denote a call for self-discipline or personal obligation, as when a character is urged to “enforce yourself” ([1], [2]), suggesting an inward compulsion toward action. In other contexts, the term carries the full weight of legal or governmental power—from the enforcement of laws and mandates by judges or legislators ([3], [4], [5]) to its more strategic use in matters of statecraft and military might ([6], [7]). Moreover, “enforce” appears in more metaphorical and poetic registers, where a glance or even a smile is described as having the power to enforce attention or command behavior ([8], [9], [10]). This multifaceted use underscores the word’s ability to bridge the personal and the institutional, making it a potent device for authors to explore themes of power, duty, and regulation.
- Begone and enforce yourself to live, for methinketh indeed you do but sojourn here below upon sufferance, so peaked and scant o' wind you show to me.
— from The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio by Giovanni Boccaccio - You gentlemen are still bound by your promise to stay; you must enforce it on yourselves—and on each other.
— from The innocence of Father Brown by G. K. Chesterton - Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 2 by Alexis de Tocqueville - The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 2 by Alexis de Tocqueville - The agents of the Public Police will enforce the execution of the present decree. "Given at the Prefecture of Police, December 3, 1851.
— from The History of a Crime by Victor Hugo - When he descended into Italy to enforce his claims, the cities of the Lombard League met him in open battle.
— from The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri: The Inferno by Dante Alighieri - They tried to enforce their rule as far as Greece, but they had to retreat before the indomitable resistance of the Hellenic people.
— from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas: An Underwater Tour of the World by Jules Verne - I will no more enforce mine office on you; Humbly entreating from your royal thoughts A modest one to bear me back again.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare - O, but they say the tongues of dying men Enforce attention like deep harmony.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare - Madam, methinks, if you did love him dearly, You do not hold the method to enforce The like from him.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
