Citations:patheticism

English citations of patheticism and patheticisms

• 1758, An Addreſs to the Great Man, pages 46–47

  And can there be a properer Æra for the Revival of Genius and Public Spirit than that of the Ad———n of the Great Man who has been recommended by the One to his diſtreſſed and aged K—g, (ſo familiarly ventures to ſpeak the Patheticiſm of Loyalty) and endeared to his exulting Fellow-Subjects by the Other; and to whom, ſhould we be unhappily and unexpectedly diſappointed, we have a Right to complain, in the Words of Tacitus, that “Succeſſere magis alii Homines quam alii Mores!”

• 1880, Thomas Guthrie, William Garden Blaikie, and Benjamin Waugh [eds.], The Sunday Magazine (Strahan & Co.), volume 9, page 100

  A quaint patheticism attends the diminution of obdurate winters with old people, whose excitements half a century ago were less recurrent and longer-lived than with a younger generation.

• 1905, Granville Stanley Hall, Adolescence: Its Psychology and Its Relations to Physiology, Anthropology, Sociology, Sex, Crime, Religion and Education (D. Appleton and company), page 268

  Sometimes thought stagnates, or there is a rapid flux of ideas, incessant repetitions, use of diminutives, patheticism, a strained intellectual effort, religious exaltation, etc.

• 1905, Edmund Pendleton in Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, volume 39 (1906), page 107

  If he can only be made to accept without whining patheticism and corroding self-pity his present situation, prejudice and all, hard as it is, take his stand squarely upon the fact of his race, respect its unique gifts, develop all its capacities, make himself the best possible black man and not desire to be a brunette imitation of the Caucasian, he will in coming generations fill a place of great importance, and of pride both to himself and to us, in the future of the republic.

• 1907, Waldo Selden Pratt, Karl Wilson Gehrkens, and Theodore Mitchell Finney [eds.], Proceedings of the Music Teachers’ National Association, volume 29, page 22

  It stimulates the highest as well as the lowest powers. It may evoke morbid, languishing patheticism that chills the joy of life and zest to insipidity, or it may make the world seem more real and joyous and life more earnest, and endow every experience with enhanced worth.

• 1911, Granville Stanley Hall, Educational Problems (D. Appleton and company), volume 1, page 524

  Hence, self-sacrifice, which is nearer the heart of her being than it is to that of man, helps to make her more religious and magnifies the patheticism with which the New Testament regards life.

• 1911, Granville Stanley Hall, Educational Problems (D. Appleton and company), volume 2, page 171

  Moreover, it is inevitable that those used to comforts should magnify the hardships of those used to poverty and that thus they unconsciously cultivate patheticism in those they help.

• 1913, Julien Benda [aut.] and Gilbert Cannan [tr.], The Yoke of Pity (H. Holt and company; original French title: L’Ordination), page 137

  […] seeing all men grovelling under it with their patheticism, their outpouring of emotion, their “musicality”; and it was there, firmly seated in himself, and he could feel it, while all the rest were gushing about it, all the professors of a Pascalian ecstasy, wretched scribblers, glued to their desks, thinking of nothing but their fame, while, never having loved any one, they had preserved their identity intact.

• 1953, Lionel Charles Knights and Frank Raymond Leavis [eds.], Scrutiny (Deighton, Bell and Co.), volume 16, page 309

  Milly’s witticism sounds a little like Catherine Sloper, but one may, for the measure of distance between the two novels, compare the reality and significant meaning one senses behind Catherine’s little patheticisms with the uninteresting, dull inertness of Milly’s response.

• 2011 July 5th, David Firth, Take This Pill: Health Reminder, Lesson 2, 1:47–1:54⁽¹⁾ and 2:14–2:27⁽²⁾

  ⁽¹⁾ It seems our nurse contracted melodram patheticism from a nervous dog. Silly old cow.

  ⁽²⁾ Does this look familiar? Are you all weak and pathetic? Do you fear woodlice or splashes from the toilet? Maybe you too have a belt of the old melodram patheticism.