élan vital

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

The success of physics and its role in grounding other sciences support a broadly naturalistic, or physicalist, worldview: that all phenomena have physical explanations and that notions such as élan vital or incorporeal souls have no place in serious thought anymore.

From Scientific American

Fisher wrote, in a preface to the “University of California Sotheby Book of California Wine”: “Wine is life, and my life and wine are inextricable. And the saving grace of all wine’s many graces, probably, is that it can never be dull. It is only the people who try to sing about it who may sound flat. But wine is an older thing than we are, and is forgiving of even the most boring explanation of its élan vital.”

From Washington Post

He seems propelled by an unseen power source — something along the quixotic lines of Henri Bergson’s mysterious, unknowable élan vital.

From Los Angeles Times

We no longer believe in a numinous life force, an élan vital.

From New York Times

Sun Valley Bronze showed the solid bronze Pendant Pulley light, THG offered the Beaubourg collection that pays homage to vintage hub-and-pipe system, and Watermark Designs expanded the Elan Vital industrial line for the kitchen.

From Washington Post