"Tautology" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... Life and Works of Chatterton gave Scott an opportunity to discuss the characteristics of Middle-English poetry, but his general thesis, that the Rowley poems exhibit graces and refinements which are in marked contrast to the tenuity of idea and tautology of expression found in genuine works of the period, is supported by an argument which seems to be based on a characterization of the romances rather than on a close acquaintance with other Middle-English poetry. We notice a similar ...
— Sir Walter Scott as a Critic of Literature • Margaret Ball
... say so? Well, then, sir, allow me to tell you, in very positive terms, sir, that you have been guilty of—of tautology. ...
— Olla Podrida • Frederick Marryat
... the Koran. To reconcile these, the Mussulman doctors have invented the doctrine of abrogation, i.e., that what was revealed at one time was revoked by a new revelation. A great deal of it is so absurd, trifling, and full of tautology that it requires no little patience to read much of it at a time. Notwithstanding, the Koran is cried up by the Mussulmans as inimitable; and in the seventeenth chapter of the Koran Mahomet is commanded to say, "Verily if men and genii were purposely assembled, that they might ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 4 • Various
... money, of course, or he would not have found her. My respected father—let me shorten the dutiful tautology by substituting in future M. R. F., which sounds military, and rather ...
— Our Mutual Friend • Charles Dickens
... Identity. — N. identity, sameness; coincidence, coalescence; convertibility; equality &c. 27; selfness[obs3], self, oneself; identification. monotony, tautology &c. (repetition) 104. facsimile &c. (copy) 21; homoousia: alter ego &c. (similar) 17[obs3]; ipsissima verba &c. (exactness) 494[Lat]; same; self, very , one and the same; very thing, actual thing; real McCoy; no other; one and only; in the flesh. V. be ...
— Roget's Thesaurus
... throw it into its present form, it may, notwithstanding, appear crude and incorrect; but, having endeavored to be plain and explicit in all the devises, even at the expense of prolixity, perhaps of tautology, I hope and trust that no disputes will arise concerning them. But if, contrary to expectation, the case should be otherwise, from the want of legal expressions, or the usual technical terms, or because too much or too little has been said on any of the devises to be consonant ...
— Washington and the American Republic, Vol. 3. • Benson J. Lossing
... spelling of this journal are very bad. It abounds in tautology and repetitions. Facts are sometimes inverted in the order of time; but to remedy all these defects it would have been necessary to recast the whole, which would have completely changed the character of the work. The spelling and punctuation were, ...
— The Memoirs of Louis XV. and XVI., Volume 1 • Madame du Hausset, and of an Unknown English Girl and the Princess Lamballe
... Tautology, or a continued repetition of the same word, is a disagreeable and inelegant fault in writing, as: "If John will come home, we will all come, but if he fails to come, we will not come until he ...
— Social Life - or, The Manners and Customs of Polite Society • Maud C. Cooke
... baths may be made available, and the indications for which are furnished by so great a number of pathological conditions, that omitting special reference to them would have led to a great deal of tautology in ...
— The Electric Bath • George M. Schweig
... the principle of valuation employed in column nine is, not the quantity of producing labor, but the quantity of labor commanded. Now, if it is, then the result is childish tautology, as being identical with the premises. For it is already introduced into the premises as one of the conditions of the case Alpha (namely, into column two), that twelve quarters of corn shall command the labor of one man; which being premised, it is a mere ...
— Memorials and Other Papers • Thomas de Quincey
... caligraphy and tone as she advanced. The handwriting is small and cramped, but the latter probably with a view to economy of space, and it is always clear and neat. There are few erasures or mistakes of grammar or spelling, even from the first, and little tautology; but she makes no attempt at literary style or elegance of expression. Still, all that she says is impressive, and probably on that account. She chooses the words best calculated to express her meaning clearly and concisely, and undoubtedly her meaning is always ...
— The Heavenly Twins • Madame Sarah Grand
... useless to wish it different as to wish the past different. "But," it will be rejoined, "our wishes can cause the future, sometimes, to be different from what it would be if they did not exist, and they can have no such effect upon the past." This, again, is a mere tautology. An effect being defined as something subsequent to its cause, obviously we can have no effect upon the past. But that does not mean that the past would not have been different if our present wishes had been different. Obviously, our present wishes ...
— Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays • Bertrand Russell
... all things; or, as it may be rendered, covereth all things. This seems to be more agreeable to the context; for otherwise it would mean the same as endureth all things, in the latter clause of the verse, and thus make a tautology; while it leaves a deficiency in the description, indicated by the passage in Peter, "Charity shall cover the multitude of sins." "Charity will draw a vail over the faults of others, so far as is consistent with duty." What trait of ...
— A Practical Directory for Young Christian Females - Being a Series of Letters from a Brother to a Younger Sister • Harvey Newcomb
... there is a Gilbertian tone about the whole piece which I should be rather more surprised at being the first to note, so far as I know, if I were not pretty well prepared to find that the study of the average dramatic critic is not much in Peacock. The choric trochees (which by the way is a tautology) are of the highest excellence, ...
— Gryll Grange • Thomas Love Peacock
... not go along with monsieur, then?" repeated Charles, with a turn for tautology not now for the first ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. XII, No. 28. July, 1873. • Various
... suffering, but with great outward patience, to Harriet's detail.—Methodical, or well arranged, or very well delivered, it could not be expected to be; but it contained, when separated from all the feebleness and tautology of the narration, a substance to sink her spirit—especially with the corroborating circumstances, which her own memory brought in favour of Mr. Knightley's most improved opinion ...
— Persuasion • Jane Austen
... but few of us left in the world," he moralized in a letter to the Bishop, "who care for religion. 'Tis necessary, therefore, for us to take the greater heed for Christianity. We must lose our all, if need be, in order to do our duty; in fine," added he, with his usual tautology, "it is right that a man ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley |
