Literary notes about nihility (AI summary)
The term "nihility" is employed in literature to evoke a profound sense of emptiness or void, often juxtaposing the imminent presence of non-existence with deeper existential or metaphysical themes. In some works, it is depicted as a deliberate, almost inevitable force that mirrors the slow, cool approach of death ([1]), while in others it represents the rejection of worldly substance and the realization of the insignificance of material concerns ([2]). Authors also use "nihility" to illustrate cosmic or abstract states, such as chaos without governance ([3]) or the inherent nullity underlying complex ideas, whether in a scientific or philosophical discussion ([4], [5]). Furthermore, the word sometimes symbolizes an alluring, dreamlike state of non-being, as experienced in moments of profound repose or dissolution ([6], [7]), and can even serve as a metaphor for social or moral decay when ideals are reduced to nothingness ([8], [9]). Overall, this versatility allows the concept of "nihility" to function simultaneously as a marker of the finite limits of human life and as a gateway into the vast, uncertain realm of the infinite unknown ([10], [11]).
- Out of those eyes and that long, thin face stared death; not hot, sudden death, but nihility, cool, deliberate, that waited for one!
— from A Breath of Prairie and other stories by Will Lillibridge - He whose understanding becomes, is sure to lose his rooted prejudice by degrees; and come to the knowledge of the nihility of the material world.
— from The Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana of Valmiki, vol. 3 (of 4) part 2 (of 2) by Valmiki - Without a governor of worlds, I can only conceive of nihility or chaos.
— from The Art of Being HappyIn a Series of Letters from a Father to His Children: with Observations and Comments by Joseph Droz - —I replied with my usual forbearance.—Certainly, to give up the algebraic symbol, because A or B is often a cover for ideal nihility, would be unwise.
— from Complete Project Gutenberg Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Works by Oliver Wendell Holmes - nothingness , n. nihility, non-existence, nullity.
— from Putnam's Word Book
A Practical Aid in Expressing Ideas Through the Use of an Exact and Varied Vocabulary by Louis A. (Louis Andrew) Flemming - Eternity is not of longer duration than one second spent in nihility.
— from Four Short Stories By Emile Zola by Émile Zola - I was sleeping the eternal, dreamless sleep so deeply; I was at last enjoying such sweet repose amidst the delights of nihility!
— from The Three Cities Trilogy: Lourdes, Volume 2 by Émile Zola - The writers whom it ridicules, have sunk into nihility .
— from Deformities of Samuel Johnson, Selected from His Works by James Thomson Callender - orget the blank nihility of all existence that dreadful moment when I stood fumbling for what was not.
— from The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 03, No. 16, February, 1859
A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics by Various - restore unto me the slumber I have earned, and let me sleep once more amid the delights of Thy nihility.”
— from The Three Cities Trilogy: Lourdes, Complete by Émile Zola - We have simply to answer—the notion of annihilating nihility is an absurdity and a contradiction.
— from The Theistic Conception of the WorldAn Essay in Opposition to Certain Tendencies of Modern Thought by B. F. (Benjamin Franklin) Cocker