Literary notes about potency (AI summary)
Literary usage of the term "potency" spans a wide spectrum of meanings, from the tangible power of substances to the intangible influence of art, emotion, or divine force. Authors invoke potency to signify measurable strength, as in discussions of antiscorbutic power in food and medicine ([1], [2], [3], [4]), while others employ it to evoke the intense emotional force or spiritual influence embedded in nature, language, or belief ([5], [6], [7]). In addition, potency is often cast in a more abstract or mystical light, describing not only physical efficacy but also the transformative, almost magical, impact of ideas and symbols—from the rallying power of rhetoric to the bewitching allure of enchanted elements ([8], [9], [10], [11]).
- One of these foodstuffs is sauerkraut, which was recognized by Lind in 1772 as having particular potency in this disease.
— from Scurvy, Past and Present by Alfred F. Hess - They vary widely also in the degree to which their potency is affected by physical or chemical conditions.
— from Scurvy, Past and Present by Alfred F. Hess - The antiscorbutic potency of raspberries was tested by Holst and Froelich (1912) and found comparable to oranges and to lemons.
— from Scurvy, Past and Present by Alfred F. Hess - The antiscorbutic potency of blood may perhaps be compared to that of milk.
— from Scurvy, Past and Present by Alfred F. Hess - And when I behold the sea, I find that it speaketh to me of Thy majesty, and of the potency of Thy might, and of Thy sovereignty and Thy grandeur.
— from Prayers and Meditations by Bahá'u'lláh - Yet it forced itself upon her as something living, it roused some potency of her childhood in her, it had some relation to her.
— from The Rainbow by D. H. Lawrence - Man, she is told, is ruled by her smiles; his whole nature subdued by the potency of her tears.
— from History of Woman Suffrage, Volume I - She instinctively knew, it may be, that some sinister or evil potency was now striving to pass her barriers; nor would she decline the contest.
— from The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne - Hath not that sovereignty, through the potency of one word, subdued, quickened, and revitalized the whole world?
— from The Kitáb-i-Íqán by Bahá'u'lláh - Words received into the heart by the channel of the ears have more potency than many conceive and well nigh every thing becometh possible to lovers.
— from The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio by Giovanni Boccaccio - The mystic truth that lies enfolded in the words, "Cast thyself into the will of God and thou shalt become as God," is one of marvellous potency.
— from The Life Radiant by Lilian Whiting
