Literary notes about secure (AI summary)
The term "secure" in literature embodies a striking duality of meaning—both a tangible assurance of safety and an abstract certainty of outcome. It figures in contexts where objects are physically anchored or safeguarded, such as fastening a door against intruders [1, 2, 3] or hoisting a sail to prevent its drifting away [4], and where intangible goals are achieved through deliberate effort, as in securing a desired hold through years of preparation [5] or ensuring personal well‐being and stability [6, 7]. The word equally conveys the notion of certainty in judgments and promises, from having confidence in one’s future prospects [8, 9] to the guarantee of protection in matters of state or personal safety [10, 11]. Thus, across a wide spectrum of literary contexts—from nautical adventures and military stratagems to domestic life and social contracts—"secure" functions as a unifying metaphor for both physical anchorage and affirmative assurance.
- In the evening he was shut up by the shepherd in the fold; the gate was closed, and the entrance made thoroughly secure.
— from Aesop's Fables by Aesop - Then they barricaded the window below, and held in readiness the iron cross-bars which served to secure the door of the wine-shop at night.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo - It was not thought worthwhile to secure the vessel to the trees or cast anchor, as there was no current.
— from The King James Version of the Bible - Several times we got the sail upon the yard, but it blew away again before we could secure it.
— from Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana - It took me fifteen years of careful preparation to secure that hold.
— from Emile by Jean-Jacques Rousseau - Would you rest secure in our respect, first feel secure in your own.
— from History of Woman Suffrage, Volume I - ‘With that,’ said I, ‘I can live secure amidst the changes and chances of this life, and I shall at last experience true happiness.’
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova - The end of Religion is not to teach us how to die, but how to live; and the earlier you become wise and good, the more of happiness you secure.
— from Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë - I have always regarded the use of my name to secure additional emphasis as a high compliment to me.
— from Man and Superman: A Comedy and a Philosophy by Bernard Shaw - That government is certainly by far the most secure, which the subjects feel a pleasure in obeying.
— from The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08 by Livy - "To secure the affections of the army, and to esteem the rest of his subjects as of little moment."
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
