contain multitudes

present singular third person contains multitudes · participle present containing multitudes · participle past contained multitudes · past contained multitudes

1. idiomaticintransitiveTo have a complex and apparently paradoxical nature; to be inconsistent, especially in a way that is ultimately admirable or noble.First known use 1855

   Do I contradict myself? / Very well then … I contradict myself; / I am large … I contain multitudes.

   1855 July 4, Walt Whitman, “[Song of Myself]”, in Leaves of Grass, Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.: [James and Andrew Rome], →OCLC, page 55

   3 more examples

   Mirror in My House is both a portrait of the artist ([Seán] O'Casey himself) and a portrait of an artist (a fictional John-Johnny-Sean Casside who contains multitudes), yet it is the unrelenting single vision of a particular personality with a fixed point of view.

   1970, Bernard Benstock, Sean O’Casey, Lewisburg, Pa.: Bucknell University Press, →OCLC

   [Sergei] Diaghilev would show Europe that Russia was large and contained multitudes: multitudes of social classes and occupations, and multitudes of indigenous musical styles, not all of them "Asiatic" or peasant.

   1996, Richard Taruskin, “Ontogeny Recapitulates Phylogeny”, in Stravinsky and the Russian Traditions: A Biography of the Works through Mavra (A Centennial Book), volume II, Berkeley; Los Angeles, Calif.: University of California Press, →ISBN, part IV (On the Cusp of the New Classicism: A Heritage Redefined), page 1508

   In taking on this new role, Boyd had learned that Les Miz's "bad guy" contains multitudes—not unlike the stars he sings about.

   2020 January 28, Lindsey Sullivan, “Watch Les Miz Tour Javert Preston Truman Boyd’s Luminous Performance of ‘Stars’”, in Broadway Buzz, archived from the original on 07 Jun 2023