Literary notes about require (AI summary)
The word "require" in literature routinely conveys a sense of necessity or compulsion, functioning as both an imperative command and a statement of essential need. In regal and authoritative contexts, it is used to demand actions or conditions, as in remarks that impose obligations or privileges, such as those calling for abdication or the fulfillment of state responsibilities [1, 2]. At the same time, the term is employed in economic and scientific discourses to denote precise necessities—whether referring to labor, resources, or conditions that must be met for a process to succeed [3, 4]. In more reflective or rhetorical passages, "require" expresses an inherent indispensability, suggesting qualities or actions that are not merely desirable but fundamentally essential to a subject’s character or function [5, 6]. This varied usage underscores the word’s versatile role in literature, where it bridges concrete needs with abstract ideals.
- "Do you require," said Michael, "that I should abdicate the empire?"
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - We require of you to testify that there is but one God, and that Mahomet is his apostle.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - The prohibition of exportation limits the improvement and cultivation of the country to what the supply of its own inhabitants require.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith - For one or two men, it would require about a month to do the work which twenty to thirty men can do in a day.
— from Argonauts of the Western Pacific by Bronislaw Malinowski - We require a looking-glass for the due dressing of our morals.
— from The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer; Counsels and Maxims by Arthur Schopenhauer - I require no "believers," it is my opinion that I am too full of malice to believe even in myself; I never address myself to masses.
— from Ecce Homo by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
