velleity

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 moviemakers have replaced this love story of tortured velleity with one of more baroque appeal�one scarcely, however, so recognizably Venetian, American, or, to name the spade, anything.

From Time Magazine Archive

A velleity we might say is the will directed to an end which is either relatively or absolutely impossible; will is that which becomes effective.

From The Reform of Education by Gentile, Giovanni

And the warrior king, who, like single-minded fathers in general, was ever in the idea that his son had a velleity for deriding and otherwise vexing him, began a severe course of reproof.

From Vikram and the Vampire; Classic Hindu Tales of Adventure, Magic, and Romance by Burton, Isabel, Lady

I would, if I could: liberet si liceret; and in the case of a velleity, we do not will, properly speaking, to will, but to be able.

From Theodicy Essays on the Goodness of God, the Freedom of Man and the Origin of Evil by Huggard, E.M.

This theory and the subtleties derived from it, far from characterizing art, represent its contrary: the impotent velleity for art, which cannot slay abstractions and come in contact with life.

From Aesthetic as Science of Expression and General Linguistic by Croce, Benedetto