Literary notes about probable (AI summary)
The word "probable" in literature serves as a versatile qualifier that suggests likelihood while still acknowledging uncertainty. Authors use it to temper assertions, weighing evidence or circumstance—whether in drawing historical inferences [1] or anticipating narrative outcomes [2]—without committing to absolute certainty. It appears in tactical discussions to forecast future events [3] and in reflective dialogue to express personal conjecture or cautious reasoning [4][5]. Across genres, the term helps balance informed judgment with the innate ambiguity of human experience [6][7].
- From an examination of the Teutonic words for “temple” Grimm has made it probable that amongst the Germans the oldest sanctuaries were natural woods.
— from The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion by James George Frazer - But it seems probable enough, since the moment that Mr. Soames’s back was turned, you released the man who was hiding in that bedroom.”
— from The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle - It is more than probable that the enemy concentrate for a heavy attack on Hancock this afternoon.
— from Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Complete by Ulysses S. Grant - I do not wish to say dogmatically that the difference is irreducible; I think it highly probable that it is not.
— from The Analysis of Mind by Bertrand Russell - Thus all probable reasoning is nothing but a species of sensation.
— from A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume - Some miracle might have produced it, yet the stages of the discovery were distinct and probable.
— from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley - Mental inertia, laziness, unjustifiable conservatism, are its probable accompaniments.
— from How We Think by John Dewey
