Literary notes about direction (AI summary)
In literature, the word "direction" carries a rich duality, serving both as a literal reference to spatial orientation and as a metaphor for guiding principles or changes in thought. Authors use it to mark a physical bearing, as seen when a character observes a landscape "in this direction" ([1]) or when the course of a river is described as running "almost perpendicular" ([2]). At the same time, "direction" frequently signals a change in focus or purpose: a character's journey toward a new goal ([3]), or a society's shift under new leadership ([4]). Moreover, it can imply both external guidance—such as someone pointing to a way forward ([5], [6])—and an internal, abstract movement like the change in one's thoughts or fate ([7], [8]). This versatile usage of "direction" enriches narrative by blending concrete spatial imagery with the fluidity of human intention and progress.
- "Why, were the Greeks great fighters?" said Tom, who saw a vista in this direction.
— from The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot - It runs in a direction almost perpendicular to the line of bluffs on the opposite side, or east bank, of the river.
— from Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Complete by Ulysses S. Grant - Presently he rose up and, cast a look far away toward the valley, and his thoughts took a new direction: “There it is!
— from The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner - The first work of creation is perfected, the second begins under the direction of inferior ministers.
— from Timaeus by Plato - " "May I ask in what direction?" "In the direction of the lake—as far as the boat-house.
— from The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins - “I’m leaving over there,” he said abruptly, waving his straw in the direction of the neighboring house.
— from Anne of the Island by L. M. Montgomery - There is no passion, therefore, capable of controlling the interested affection, but the very affection itself, by an alteration of its direction.
— from A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume - Wherever thought is wholly wanting, or the power to act or forbear according to the direction of thought, there necessity takes place.
— from An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume 1 by John Locke
