Literary notes about force (AI summary)
Throughout literature, "force" carries a multifaceted significance that spans the physical, the psychological, and the metaphorical. In some works it directly denotes tangible power—be it military might on the battlefield ([1],[2],[3],[4]) or the sheer momentum of nature and human effort ([5],[6],[7])—while in others it symbolizes an inner drive or the compelling nature of ideas and emotions ([8],[9],[10]). Authors also extend its meaning to abstract realms, using "force" to encapsulate social or moral influence ([11],[12],[13]), as well as the catalytic energy that underpins human existence and transformative experiences ([14],[9],[15]). This layered usage exemplifies how the concept adapts to context, serving as both a literal descriptor of physical phenomena and a metaphor for the unseen power that shapes thought, behavior, and history.
- And if he covered each point even by a brigade, where would be his army when he would need it to give battle to an approaching force?
— from The Art of War by baron de Antoine Henri Jomini - This destruction of the enemy's force, must be principally effected by means of battle.
— from On War by Carl von Clausewitz - "Beauregard, with a large portion of his force, was left south by the cutting of the railroads by Kautz.
— from Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Complete by Ulysses S. Grant - When the king was out, he heard of this, and took his force, and beset her in the tower.
— from The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle - Thus a habit of exerting with the utmost force all the muscles will have been established, whenever great suffering is experienced.
— from The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin - The Tokugawa forces had been pressing all day along the Toba road until four o'clock, when they made an attempt to force the Satsuma position.
— from A Diplomat in Japan by Ernest Mason Satow - A full fourth part of their force never reached the top of the lofty embankment; the three-fourths reached it and plunged over—to death by drowning.
— from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain - He must sit down to the table and force himself, at all costs, to concentrate his mind on some one thought.
— from The Lady with the Dog and Other Stories by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov - Force your mind toward your goal; hold it there steadily, persistently, for this is the mental state that creates.
— from Pushing to the Front by Orison Swett Marden - He stood as if petrified by an unseen force, but the force was his own strong will.
— from Adam Bede by George Eliot - 'It is, said he, worth while to consider the Force of Dress; and how the Persons of one Age differ from those of another, merely by that only.
— from The Spectator, Volume 1 by Joseph Addison and Sir Richard Steele - It is yet more absurd to be angry with a Man because he does not apprehend the Force of your Reasons, or gives weak ones of his own.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - The Church points out this force in the Cross, and history needs only to follow it.
— from The Education of Henry Adams by Henry Adams - I thus detail the precise mode in which it came into my possession; for the circumstances impressed me with peculiar force.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition by Edgar Allan Poe - Suicide may also be regarded as an experiment—a question which man puts to Nature, trying to force her to an answer.
— from The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer; Studies in Pessimism by Arthur Schopenhauer
