Literary notes about Exempt (AI summary)
The word "exempt" in literature is often employed to denote freedom from a burden, penalty, or even the ordinary constraints of life. Authors use it both literally and metaphorically: sometimes to describe practical situations such as financial or legal immunity—for instance, someone set apart by secure investments or relieved from taxing impositions [1, 2, 3]—and other times to reflect a more abstract state of being, where characters or entities are untroubled by common human afflictions or natural laws [4, 5, 6]. Its usage swings between emphasizing privilege and highlighting vulnerability, as even those deemed exempt may later be drawn back into the realm of the ordinary or the inevitable [7, 8, 9].
- Timothy alone was exempt, being in gilt-edged securities.
— from The Forsyte Saga, Volume I. by John Galsworthy - In return, they were themselves exempt, altogether, or in part, from the indiction and other imposts.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - In 1851, a petition was sent from Ontario County, praying the Legislature to exempt women from taxation.
— from History of Woman Suffrage, Volume I - To be exempt from the Passions with which others are tormented, is the only pleasing Solitude.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - To suppose otherwise is to suppose that the mind of man is exempt from the universal law of causation.
— from The Will to Believe, and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy by William James - The ash Yggdrasill begins to shake, nor is there anything in heaven or earth exempt from fear at that terrible hour.
— from The Elder Eddas of Saemund Sigfusson; and the Younger Eddas of Snorre Sturleson by Sæmundur fróði - He only is exempt from failures who makes no efforts.—
— from More Toasts Jokes, Stories and Quotations - Beside, I fear me, if thy thoughts were sifted, The King, thy sovereign, is not quite exempt From envious malice of thy swelling heart.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare - The great gods of Egypt themselves were not exempt from the common lot.
— from The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion by James George Frazer
