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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]).
  1. 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
  2. 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
  3. 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
  4. —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
  5. 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
  6. Eternity is not of longer duration than one second spent in nihility.
    — from Four Short Stories By Emile Zola by Émile Zola
  7. 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
  8. The writers whom it ridicules, have sunk into nihility .
    — from Deformities of Samuel Johnson, Selected from His Works by James Thomson Callender
  9. 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
  10. 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
  11. 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

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