Literary notes about formula (AI summary)
The term “formula” in literature appears in a wide range of contexts, reflecting its flexible and evocative power. In some works it denotes precise instructions or recipes, as seen in Roman culinary texts where formulas dictate the ingredients and proportions for a dish ([1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6]). In others it serves as a summative or symbolic expression of larger ideas—ranging from sacred teachings like the Upanishadic “tat tvam asi” ([7]) and Plato’s philosophical formulations ([8], [9]) to Nietzsche’s evocative declarations about human destiny and happiness ([10], [11], [12], [13]). Beyond these realms, “formula” has been used metaphorically to outline social laws, scientific principles, or even characteristic expressions in everyday language ([14], [15], [16], [17]), thereby demonstrating its dual capacity to be both a concrete set of instructions and an abstract framework within varied literary traditions.
- It appears that the terminology of frigo and that of asso in the next formula, has not been clearly defined.
— from Cookery and Dining in Imperial Rome by Apicius - V. This formula, lacking detailed instructions, is of course perfectly obscure, and it would be useless to debate over it.
— from Cookery and Dining in Imperial Rome by Apicius - This formula cannot be classified under “Sauce for Boiled Fish.”
— from Cookery and Dining in Imperial Rome by Apicius - In experimenting with this formula we would advise to use salt and oil judiciously if any at all.
— from Cookery and Dining in Imperial Rome by Apicius - This is one formula.
— from Cookery and Dining in Imperial Rome by Apicius - Like Lister’s error in the preceding formula it would be a great blunder to add salt to a cured fish already saturated with salt to the utmost.
— from Cookery and Dining in Imperial Rome by Apicius - In that famous formula, “That art thou” ( tat tvam asi ), all the teachings of the Upanishads are summed up.
— from A History of Sanskrit Literature by Arthur Anthony Macdonell - The formula of Anaxagoras—'all things were in chaos or confusion, and then mind came and disposed them'—is a summary of the first part of the Timaeus.
— from Timaeus by Plato - And in modern times we sometimes use metaphorically what Plato employed as a philosophical formula.
— from The Republic by Plato - When I cast about me for my highest formula of Shakespeare, I find invariably but this one: that he conceived the type of Cæsar.
— from Ecce Homo by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche - 44 The formula of my happiness: a Yea, a Nay, a straight line, goal....
— from The Twilight of the Idols; or, How to Philosophize with the Hammer. The Antichrist by Nietzsche - The formula of our happiness: a Yea, a Nay, a straight line, a goal.
— from The Twilight of the Idols; or, How to Philosophize with the Hammer. The Antichrist by Nietzsche - Instinctively to select that which is harmful to one, to be lured by "disinterested" motives,—these things almost provide the formula for decadence.
— from The Twilight of the Idols; or, How to Philosophize with the Hammer. The Antichrist by Nietzsche - Use of the formula cos.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - The second principle is ordinarily summed up in the formula: like produces like .
— from The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life by Émile Durkheim - When the formula of this proportion shall be studied out, any workman, who is skilled with tools, can construct a perfect spire.
— from Know the Truth: A Critique on the Hamiltonian Theory of Limitation by Jesse Henry Jones - “Look how round my chin is!” was his usual formula.
— from Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilevich Gogol