Literary notes about methodical (AI summary)
The term "methodical" appears in literature as a marker of deliberate, systematic behavior that can describe both characters and processes. Authors employ it to underscore a calm and precise quality in actions or habits, as seen when characters maintain an unvarying pace ([1], [2], [3]) or approach tasks with steady, unhurried precision ([4], [5]). It is also used to illustrate an orderly, almost mechanical quality in nature or human endeavors—from the careful organization in business affairs and scientific inquiry ([6], [7], [8]), to the deliberate arrangement in everyday activities and even warfare ([9], [10]). Overall, "methodical" enriches narrative textures by lending a sense of rational structure and measured rigor to both character and context ([11], [12]).
- He comes towards them at his usual methodical pace, which is never quickened, never slackened.
— from Bleak House by Charles Dickens - But your interests demand that I should be cool and methodical, Mr. Carstone; and I cannot be otherwise—no, sir, not even to please you."
— from Bleak House by Charles Dickens - I am a methodical man, you see, and you never know what turn events might take afterwards.
— from The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle - He spoke in a calm and methodical manner, as though the events which he narrated were commonplace enough.
— from A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle - He went over to the door, and turning the lock he examined it in his methodical way.
— from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle - As man can produce and certainly has produced a great result by his methodical and unconscious means of selection, what may not nature effect?
— from On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection by Charles Darwin - In the conduct of his business affairs, nobody could be more careful, more methodical, more precise.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - In man's methodical selection, a breeder selects for some definite object, and free intercrossing will wholly stop his work.
— from On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection by Charles Darwin - But so irregular was the formation of the valleys that Cyrus Harding was obliged to conduct the exploration in a strictly methodical manner.
— from The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne - The preparations for attack are always made with a certain methodical deliberation; after which, the lightning strikes.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo - "The question is," says Mr. Tulkinghorn in his methodical, subdued, uninterested way, "first, whether you have any of Captain Hawdon's writing?"
— from Bleak House by Charles Dickens - A sort of methodical order seems to have regulated the separation of land and water, mountains and valleys.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 1 by Alexis de Tocqueville
