Literary notes about gluttony (AI summary)
The term "gluttony" has long been employed in literature as a potent symbol of both personal vice and broader societal decay. Early aphorisms, such as “Gluttony kills more than the sword” ([1], [2]), suggest that its consequences can be as destructive as physical violence, while authors like Thomas Jefferson and John Milton use the term to critique national corruption and moral failing ([3], [4]). In some works, gluttony is personified—consider the stark statement “I am Gluttony” ([5])—turning it into a living embodiment of excess and deterioration. Meanwhile, its recurring presence in moral and philosophical discussions, from Dante’s vivid depictions of divine retribution ([6], [7]) to Rousseau’s view of it as a vice of “feeble minds” ([8]), underscores its versatility as a metaphor for overindulgence in both literal and figurative senses.
- Gluttony kills more than the sword.
— from A Polyglot of Foreign Proverbs - Gluttony has killed more than the sword.
— from A Polyglot of Foreign Proverbs - What would that Philosopher have said, had he been present at the Gluttony of a modern Meal?
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - Next, what more national corruption, for which England hears ill abroad, than household gluttony: who shall be the rectors of our daily rioting?
— from Areopagitica by John Milton - I am Gluttony.
— from The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe - You citizens were wont to call me Ciacco; For the pernicious sin of gluttony I, as thou seest, am battered by this rain.
— from Divine Comedy, Longfellow's Translation, Hell by Dante Alighieri - As Ciacco [280] me your citizens named of yore; And for the damning sin of gluttony I, as thou seest, am beaten by this shower.
— from The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri: The Inferno by Dante Alighieri - Gluttony is the vice of feeble minds.
— from Emile by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
