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Literary notes about impel (AI summary)

In literature, "impel" is frequently used to denote a driving force—be it internal passion, instinct, or external compulsion—that moves characters or elements of nature toward action. Authors deploy the term both in a figurative sense, such as when inner convictions or emotions prompt decisive behavior [1, 2, 3], and in a literal sense, describing the physical movement of objects like oars propelling a boat [4, 5]. In epic and classical works, "impel" conveys the sense of fated or divine influence directing events, as when celestial commands or natural forces set heroic figures in motion [6, 7]. Philosophical reflections on human motivation also harness the term to question what drives individuals to act, suggesting that impulses—whether noble or ignoble—are at the root of personal and societal actions [8, 9, 10].
  1. Rage, the passion that burns within me, will impel me to profit by it.
    — from Dona Perfecta by Benito Pérez Galdós
  2. Now, you can act as your conscience and your reason impel you; but it is always better, I think, to work in the full daylight."
    — from The Catholic World, Vol. 18, October, 1873, to March, 1874. A Monthly Magazine of General Literature and Science by Various
  3. Our passions impel us outside, even when no objects present themselves to excite them.
    — from Pascal's Pensées by Blaise Pascal
  4. 3.4. 2 Pe. 2.17; to impel a vessel by oars, to row, Mar. 6.48.
    — from A Greek-English Lexicon to the New Testament by William Greenfield
  5. I asked and received leave to go on shore, and pushed as fast as four oars could impel me to the usual landing-place near the old nunnery.
    — from Bentley's Miscellany, Volume II by Various
  6. Then may his teaching cheerfully impel thee: Dost thou, as man, increase the stores of truth?
    — from Faust [part 1]. Translated Into English in the Original Metres by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
  7. and so propitious gales Attend thy voyage, and impel thy sails;
    — from The Odyssey by Homer
  8. "Yet what possible motive could Van Zwieten have had to impel him to such a crime?"
    — from A Traitor in London by Fergus Hume
  9. Whence is the motive derived which should impel me to one line of conduct in preference to the other?
    — from Memorials and Other Papers — Volume 1 by Thomas De Quincey
  10. He took a deep and comprehensive view of the causes that impel men to action and of the results produced by the multifarious influences that control
    — from The Sages and Heroes of the American Revolution by L. Carroll (Levi Carroll) Judson

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