Literary notes about subsistence (AI summary)
In literature, subsistence is portrayed as the foundational means by which individuals and societies secure their daily survival as well as their economic stability. It appears in discussions of livelihood, where writers depict how labor and trade provide the necessary support for existence ([1], [2], [3]). More broadly, the term is extended to capture fluctuations in both material resources and the human condition, examining how trade, industry, and natural abundance or scarcity determine not only physical sustenance ([4], [5]) but also impact personal and emotional well‐being ([6], [7]). This multifaceted treatment emphasizes subsistence as a central theme in analyzing the interplay between economic forces and the human spirit across diverse literary works.
- The mendicant orders are like those teachers whose subsistence depends altogether upon their industry.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith - As soon as they are able to work, they must apply to some trade, by which they can earn their subsistence.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith - The one exports what can subsist and accommodate but a very few, and imports the subsistence and accommodation of a great number.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith - In all ages of which we possess any records the Egyptians have been an agricultural people, dependent for their subsistence on the growth of the corn.
— from The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion by James George Frazer - The seditions of Alexandria had often affected the tranquillity and subsistence of Rome itself.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - I anxiously wished to find her, not merely because she was necessary to my subsistence, but because she was infinitely more necessary to my heart.
— from The Confessions of Jean Jacques Rousseau — Complete by Jean-Jacques Rousseau - All my castles in the air were vanished, and I became sensible of the necessity of seeking some occupation that would procure me a subsistence.
— from The Confessions of Jean Jacques Rousseau — Complete by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
