Literary notes about quality (AI summary)
Writers employ the term "quality" in a remarkably versatile fashion, using it to denote not only degrees of refinement and excellence but also the inherent nature or character of things. In some passages it signifies a measure of aesthetic or technical merit—for instance, describing the tonal attributes of musical instruments or the fine texture of materials [1], [2]—while in others it connotes virtues or distinguishing personal traits, such as fortitude, originality, or valor [3], [4]. At times, "quality" also appears in more abstract reflections on human nature and intellectual character, suggesting that its very essence is relative and intricate [5], [6]. This duality—the concrete and the conceptual—enables authors to enrich their narrative and philosophical explorations with a term that is as multifaceted as the subjects it describes [7], [8].
- These should be simple, but the flowers as natural as possible, and of the finest quality.
— from The Gentlemen's Book of Etiquette and Manual of Politeness by Cecil B. Hartley - The dark, nasal tone of the oboe will prevail in the low register, the bright, "chest" quality of the clarinet in the high compass.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - We sometimes also call those who bear pain unflinchingly courageous: but this quality of character we more commonly distinguish as Fortitude.
— from The Methods of Ethics by Henry Sidgwick - The essential quality of him was, that he could fight and conquer; that he was a right piece of human Valor.
— from On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History by Thomas Carlyle - Quality is merely a relative truth for us ; it is not a "thing-in-itself."
— from The Will to Power: An Attempted Transvaluation of All Values. Book III and IV by Nietzsche - This is an original quality of the soul, and similar to what we have every day experience of in our bodies.
— from A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume - I was soon after taken out to dance, and, as I fancied, by a Woman of the first Quality, for she was very tall, and moved gracefully.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - Cold, then, is nothing but a negative quality, simply implying the absence of heat.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson
