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Literary notes about thoughts (AI summary)

The term “thoughts” in literature is a versatile device that conveys both the delicate inner workings of the mind and the driving forces behind actions and emotions. For instance, in grim fairy tales such as [1], “bad thoughts” become catalysts for violent decisions, while in philosophical musings like [2], thoughts are depicted as the very expressions and registries of the mind’s conceptions. In other works, authors use the term to reflect introspection and the evolving nature of one’s internal state, as seen in the meditations of fate ([3]) or the flow of inner life that both haunts and inspires, as in [4] and [5]. From the intimate reflections that reveal character insights in [6] to the broader, almost metaphysical considerations of thought in [7], literature employs “thoughts” as a bridge between emotion, reflection, and action, enriching narratives with complexity and a deep sense of humanity.
  1. When there he did not know on whom to vent his rage and anger, until bad thoughts came to him, and he resolved to kill his brother.
    — from Household Tales by Brothers Grimm by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm
  2. The use of Words, is to register to our selves, and make manifest to others the Thoughts and Conceptions of our Minds.
    — from Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes
  3. For a good while these thoughts occupied my mind, and I had a hunch that fate would soon give away the captain's secrets.
    — from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas: An Underwater Tour of the World by Jules Verne
  4. Dive, thoughts, down to my soul.
    — from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
  5. Its attractions are the keys which unlock my thoughts and make me acquainted with myself.
    — from Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson by Ralph Waldo Emerson
  6. She made no reply—she seemed to be too much wrapped up in her own thoughts to attend to me.
    — from The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
  7. For, in proportion as a thinking being is conceived as thinking more thoughts, so is it conceived as containing more reality or perfection.
    — from Ethics by Benedictus de Spinoza

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