Literary notes about scrupulous (AI summary)
In literature, "scrupulous" is employed as a flexible descriptor that often conveys meticulous attention to detail and a steadfast adherence to moral or factual precision. Authors use the term to emphasize characters’ or narrators’ integrity and exactness—for example, a figure committed to ethical rigor or a historian’s unwavering care in verifying facts [1, 2]. At times, it also hints at an almost excessive fastidiousness in addressing both minor and major details in life, as seen when a character is portrayed as overly precise in personal behavior or judgment [3, 4]. Whether highlighting commendable honesty or critiquing an overzealous preoccupation with correctness, the word enriches the narrative by vividly portraying the complexities in personal and institutional conduct [5, 6, 7].
- i , 75 ; consummate general, i , 108 ; not always scrupulous in his methods, iii , 49 ; his valuation of character, ii , 71 .
— from De Officiis by Marcus Tullius Cicero - As a historian, it shows itself in his scrupulous care in investigating evidence and in acknowledging the sources from which he draws.
— from Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England by Saint the Venerable Bede - He is so very strict and scrupulous in his notions; over-scrupulous I must say.
— from Persuasion by Jane Austen - If they are so no longer, Common Sense condemns as over-scrupulous the refusal to use them where it is customary to do so.
— from The Methods of Ethics by Henry Sidgwick - At no time was he a very scrupulous man of his word.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition by Edgar Allan Poe - He was scrupulous about taking any money from his master on false pretences; so he sold his best clothes to pay for his passage to Boston.
— from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself by Harriet A. Jacobs - However that might be, Françoise had come, more and more, to pay an infinitely scrupulous attention to my aunt's least word and gesture.
— from Swann's Way by Marcel Proust
