Literary notes about rapacity (AI summary)
In literature, rapacity is often employed to evoke an image of unbridled greed and predatory ambition, reflecting both historical plunder and personal vice. It is used to characterize individuals and institutions that ruthlessly appropriate wealth and power, as when it is attributed to the insatiable hunger of conquerors and corrupt officials [1], [2], [3]. At times, the term underscores a broader societal critique, suggesting that greedy appetites elevate moral decay and foster exploitation on a grand scale [4], [5], [6]. Whether depicting the rapacity of minor officials or the rapacious greed of national leaders, authors use the term to cast light on the destructive consequences of endless covetousness [7], [8].
- Insolence, and rapacity, in the victor, produced, among the enslaved nations, impatience of their misery, and a thirst for vengeance.
— from English Caricature and Satire on Napoleon I. Volume 2 (of 2) by John Ashton - But this is not all—clerical rapacity holds property even in the corpse which cannot be interred until this last grasping charge is satisfied.
— from Religion in the Heavens; Or, Mythology Unveiled in a Series of Lectures by Logan Mitchell - " It is difficult to describe the rapacity with which the American rushes forward to secure the immense booty which fortune proffers to him.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 1 by Alexis de Tocqueville - A taint of imbecile rapacity blew through it all, like a whiff from some corpse.
— from Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad - The real cause of want in India has been, and yet is, the rapacity of man, not the niggardliness of nature.
— from Progress and Poverty, Volumes I and II An Inquiry into the Cause of Industrial Depressions and of Increase of Want with Increase of Wealth by Henry George - Rapacity, avarice, and effeminacy are the vices ascribed to the increase of commerce; and in some degree, it must be confessed, they follow her steps.
— from The Lusiad; Or, The Discovery of India, an Epic Poem by Luís de Camões - In a series of poems he had satirized the rapacity of minor officials and called attention to the intolerable sufferings of the masses.
— from A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems - The rapacity of the settlers is usually backed by the tyranny of the government.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 1 by Alexis de Tocqueville
