Literary notes about statute (AI summary)
In literature “statute” often functions as a symbol of formal authority and written law, evoking both the rigidity of institutional rules and the historic legacy of governance. Writers deploy the term to convey the solemn decree of legislative power—as seen when it is cited as an immutable command or even used with irony to expose legal absurdities [1][2]—and to highlight the tension between legal codification and human affairs. It appears in discussions ranging from precise measures of distance [3] to the limits imposed on claims in personal disputes [4], and even in metaphorical contexts where ordinary life is measured against the weight of established custom [5][6]. This wide-ranging usage underscores how “statute” carries not just a legal definition but also a broader cultural resonance about societal order and its challenges [7][8].
- This is my decree, my statute and ordinance.
— from Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais - The clauses of the statute inflict a heavy fine on all captains of ships who should import Quakers into the country.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 1 by Alexis de Tocqueville - Hence its length was 1618 English yards (taking the Roman foot at 11·6496 English inches), or 142 yards less than the English statute mile.
— from The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 1 (of 6) by the Elder Pliny - Two years was the “statute of limitations,” and after that the victim could not sue.
— from The Jungle by Upton Sinclair - he was bound an apprentice, according to the statute, to Sir Thomas Booby, an uncle of Mr Booby's by the father's side.
— from Joseph Andrews, Vol. 1 by Henry Fielding - It shall be a perpetual statute for your generations throughout all your dwellings, that ye eat neither fat nor blood.’
— from Demonology and Devil-lore by Moncure Daniel Conway - When a statute punishes the "wilfully and maliciously" injuring another's property, it is arguable, if not clear, that something more is meant.
— from The Common Law by Oliver Wendell Holmes - I doubt if there be another nation on the globe having the brass and the baseness to put such a law on the statute-book.
— from My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass
