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Literary notes about impute (AI summary)

In literature the term "impute" is often deployed to express the act of ascribing a quality, fault, or origin to someone or something, frequently in the context of moral or causal evaluation. For instance, authors use it to assign responsibility or blame—whether it is attributing unforeseen outcomes to an agent’s purpose as seen in [1], or holding a character accountable for monstrous intentions as in [2]. In other cases, "impute" serves to mark a philosophical or theological reflection, such as linking divine qualities with human expectations in [3] or urging self-responsibility for personal views in [4]. The word also traverses social and literary critiques, from condemning misplaced ascriptions of character faults in [5] to suggesting that commendable attributes must be recognized and imputed as inherently laudable in [6]. Thus, across these examples the term functions as a versatile tool for authors to explore ideas of accountability, attribution, and interpretation in varying cultural and intellectual contexts.
  1. “You err—you err,”—said the Templar, hastily, “if you impute what I could neither foresee nor prevent to my purpose or agency.—Could
    — from Ivanhoe: A Romance by Walter Scott
  2. [turning on Tanner] How dare you, sir, impute such monstrous intentions to me?
    — from Man and Superman: A Comedy and a Philosophy by Bernard Shaw
  3. or shall I not rather say detestable and vain error, that I may not impute vanity to the divine nature!
    — from The City of God, Volume I by Bishop of Hippo Saint Augustine
  4. When, therefore, we are hindered or disturbed, or grieved, let us never impute it to others, but to ourselves—that is, to our own views.
    — from The Enchiridion by Epictetus
  5. Oh, Mr. Keller, why does your article impute things to my father without the slightest foundation?
    — from The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  6. You must consequently impute dignity to this; and if so, it must necessarily be laudable: therefore, everything that is laudable is good.
    — from Cicero's Tusculan Disputations by Marcus Tullius Cicero

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