Literary notes about suffice (AI summary)
The word “suffice” has been employed in literature to signal that a single instance, brief mention, or minimal amount is adequate to achieve a point. Often prefaced with phrases like “suffice it to say” ([1], [2], [3]), the term emphasizes that further elaboration is unnecessary because what has been provided is ample evidence or illustration. Authors use it both literally—as in descriptions where a certain quantity or quality is enough to meet a need ([4], [5], [6])—and rhetorically to truncate discussion once a point is made ([7], [8], [9]). In doing so, writers balance brevity with clarity, suggesting that additional detail would be superfluous to the argument or narrative.
- Suffice it then simply to say, that Jones, after having played the part of a madman for many minutes, came, by degrees, to himself;
— from History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding - Let it suffice to say, Ichabod stole forth with the air of one who had been sacking a henroost, rather than a fair lady’s heart.
— from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving - Let it suffice to say, Ichabod stole forth with the air of one who had been sacking a hen-roost, rather than a fair lady’s heart.
— from The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon by Washington Irving - Had it a thousand throats of brass, it would not suffice.
— from The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle - That would suffice to make a formidable monster.
— from Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea by Jules Verne - And if he possesses the two essential requirements, the simplest language will suffice.
— from Best Russian Short Stories - Suffice to say, I was never permitted to be idle.
— from Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup - I could tell you a hundred true stories illustrative of that fact, but one must here suffice.
— from Little Folks (September 1884) by Various - I could produce many instances of this kind; but these may suffice.
— from Cicero's Tusculan Disputations by Marcus Tullius Cicero
