Literary notes about restraint (AI summary)
In literature the term "restraint" carries a range of nuanced meanings, from the moral and intellectual self-discipline advocated by thinkers to the physical or social limits imposed upon characters and societies. It is often depicted as a deliberate suppression of natural impulses—whether in the form of internal self-restraint that governs behavior and emotion ([1], [2]), or as an external barrier that restricts expression and freedom ([3], [4]). At times, authors even extend the term into the realm of technical description, as when physical materials are designed with a particular restraint in mind ([5]). Other portrayals emphasize the dramatic tension that arises when the controlled yields to passion, leading characters to either break free of effective constraint or struggle against an overwhelming internal urge ([6], [7]). This multifaceted use of restraint thus underscores literature’s ongoing exploration of the balance between individual liberty and social or physiological limitation ([8], [9]).
- She little guessed the struggle within my breast, or the effort of self-restraint which held me back.
— from The Sign of the Four by Arthur Conan Doyle - In the body restraint is good, good is restraint in speech, in thought restraint is good, good is restraint in all things.
— from Dhammapada, a Collection of Verses; Being One of the Canonical Books of the Buddhists - It is wholesomer for the moral nature to be restrained, even by arbitrary power, than to be allowed to exercise arbitrary power without restraint.
— from The Subjection of Women by John Stuart Mill - They who direct the affairs of state, then, can win the good-will of the masses by no other means more easily than by self-restraint and self-denial.
— from De Officiis by Marcus Tullius Cicero - It consisted of an inner layer of neoprene-coated fabric and a restraint layer of aluminized nylon fabric.
— from Rockets, Missiles, and Spacecraft of the National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution - "Oh, I do—I do," exclaimed Leslie, with an eagerness which seemed to burst forth and beat down some restraint that had been imposed on it.
— from Anne's House of Dreams by L. M. Montgomery - All the long restraint she had imposed on herself gave way in that first last outburst of tenderness.
— from The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins - She cannot endure their restraint and will walk alone in a neighbouring garden.
— from Bleak House by Charles Dickens - When a woman's heart is once depraved, she bids adieu to all restraint;—she preserves no measures.
— from The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom — Complete by T. Smollett
