Literary notes about partiality (AI summary)
In literature, the term "partiality" is employed in a variety of nuanced ways—from denoting unjust favoritism that undermines impartial principles to describing a natural human bias in personal matters. Authors have used it to condemn biased judgment in political and social contexts, as when partiality is seen as detrimental to fairness in governance ([1], [2], [3]). At the same time, it captures the fluid nature of human affection and preference, being invoked to illustrate personal leanings or emotional predispositions in relationships—be they familial, romantic, or friendly ([4], [5], [6], [7]). Other writers extend its usage to emphasize an inborn or even culturally specific partiality, suggesting that every individual or group harbors inherent inclinations that color their perceptions ([8], [9]). Thus, across genres and epochs, "partiality" serves as a critical concept that challenges the reader to reflect on the balance between natural inclination and the ideal of objective fairness ([10], [11]).
- Partiality to either, to the injury of the other, is wrong in principle, and we must therefore oppose it.
— from History of Woman Suffrage, Volume I - 24 He constantly declaimed against the luxury and corruption of the age, the partiality of parliaments, and the misery of party spirit.
— from Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay - But we may distrust the partiality of a kinsman.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - His apparent partiality had subsided, his attentions were over, he was the admirer of some one else.
— from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - The mother's eyes are not always deceived in their partiality: she at least can best judge who is the tender, filial-hearted child.
— from Middlemarch by George Eliot - He had thought he loved her to distraction; he had regarded his passion as adoration; and behold it was only a poor little evanescent partiality.
— from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Complete by Mark Twain - I feel that I have betrayed myself perpetually—so unguarded in speaking of my partiality for the church!
— from Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen - For, indeed, who is there alive that will not be swayed by his bias and partiality to the place of his birth?
— from Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World by Jonathan Swift - Even as it is, mathematicians share with musicians a certain partiality in their characters and mental development.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana - Partiality is thinking too highly of anyone because of the love we bear him.
— from Ethics by Benedictus de Spinoza - There is no partiality, no respect of persons, in God’s distribution of rewards and punishments.
— from St. Paul's Epistles to the Colossians and Philemon by J. B. Lightfoot