"Man does desire an ideal Superman with such energy as he can spare from his nutrition, and has in every age magnified the best living substitute for it he can find. His least incompetent general is set up as an Alexander; his King is the first gentleman in the world; his Pope is a saint. He is never without an array of human idols who are all nothing but sham Supermen."
— 1901–1903, John Tanner [pseudonym; George Bernard Shaw], “[The Revolutionist’s Handbook and Pocket Companion] Man’s Objection to His Own Improvement”, in Man and Superman. A Comedy and a Philosophy, Westminster [London]: Archibald Constable & Co., published 1903, →OCLC, page 194:
""Well, what is it that he does that I don't do? Just say the word, - teetotal, vegetarian, aeronaut, theosophist, superman.""
— 1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:
"[page 113] The idea of superman is as old as the world. Through all the centuries, through hundreds of centuries of its history, humanity has lived with the idea of superman. Sayings and legends of all ancient peoples are full of images of a superman. Heroes of myths, Titans, demi-gods, Prometheus, who brought fire from heaven; prophets, messiahs and saints of all religions; heroes of fairy tales and epic songs, knights who rescue captive princesses, awake sleeping beauties, vanquish dragons, and fight giants and ogres—all these are images of a superman. [...] [page 114] People dreamt of, or remembered times long past when their life was governed by supermen, who struggled against evil, upheld justice and acted as mediators between men and the Deity, governing them according to the will of the Deity, giving them laws, bringing them commandments."
— 1931, P[yotr] D[emianovich] Ouspensky, “Superman”, in R[eginald] R. Merton, transl., A New Model of the Universe: Principles of the Psychological Method in Its Application to Problems of Science, Religion, and Art, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, →OCLC, pages 113–114:
"By the latter part of 1848, the throne of Hudson the Railway King who had been called in in 1845 as a superman to save the Eastern Counties Railway, was tottering to its fall, [...]."
— 1941 December, Kenneth Brown, “The Newmarket & Chesterford Railway—II”, in Railway Magazine, page 533:
"I had a vision of what the ideal man should be. I wanted someone whose income combined with mine could afford us a family, an apartment, a car, and all the travel, luxury, and fun we could possibly tolerate. I wanted a Superman."
— 2010 August, A[lex] E[chevarria] Roman, chapter 25, in The Superman Project: A Chico Santana Mystery, New York, N.Y.: Thomas Dunne Books, St. Martin's Press, →ISBN, page 218: