Literary notes about negligence (AI summary)
Throughout literature, "negligence" is employed to explore both personal shortcomings and broader societal failings. In economic and administrative contexts, it surfaces as a term critiquing inefficiency and lack of diligence—as seen in discussions of mismanaged institutions and public affairs ([1], [2], [3]). At the individual level, authors like Shakespeare and Rousseau use the term to underscore characters’ casual disregard or unintended oversights, thereby exposing the human propensity for carelessness in matters ranging from honor to health ([4], [5]). Legal writings, notably those of Oliver Wendell Holmes, elevate "negligence" into a conceptual backbone for discussions around liability and responsibility ([6], [7], [8]). Even in poetic and ironic settings, the notion is both a lament and a subtle humor, reflecting the multifaceted impact of neglect on personal fate and social order ([9], [10]).
- If it is very much overpaid, it is apt to suffer, perhaps still more, by their negligence and idleness.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith - It was naturally to be expected, therefore, that folly, negligence, and profusion, should prevail in the whole management of their affairs.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith - Negligence and profusion, therefore, must always prevail, more or less, in the management of the affairs of such a company.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith - I beseech you do me this courteous office as to know of the knight what my offence to him is: it is something of my negligence, nothing of my purpose.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare - She looked on my fortune as already made, if not destroyed by my own negligence; what then would she say on my arrival?
— from The Confessions of Jean Jacques Rousseau — Complete by Jean-Jacques Rousseau - It has much to say of wrongs, of malice, fraud, intent, and negligence.
— from The Common Law by Oliver Wendell Holmes - The foundation of liability in trespass as well as case was said to be negligence.
— from The Common Law by Oliver Wendell Holmes - It might be hastily assumed that the action on the case [81] is founded on the defendant's negligence.
— from The Common Law by Oliver Wendell Holmes - It was, at one time, the fashion to affect a certain negligence, which was called poetic, and supposed to be the result of genius.
— from The Gentlemen's Book of Etiquette and Manual of Politeness by Cecil B. Hartley - No, faith; she let it drop by negligence, And, to the advantage, I being here took't up.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
