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Literary notes about Immunity (AI summary)

The word "immunity" has been employed in literature with a remarkable range, shifting smoothly between literal and metaphorical uses. In earlier texts, such as Thucydides [1] and Jefferson [2], it denotes a literal protection—whether from epidemics or social maladies—while later works expand its meaning to include social and political contexts. For instance, sociologists discuss "biological and social immunity" as a concept that protects individuals or groups from contagions of both disease and behavior [3, 4], and writers like Aristophanes [5] and Homer [6] invoke it to emphasize vulnerability or the strategic exemption from negative consequences. Across these varied examples, from granting immunity for crimes [7] to challenging the idea of an absolute shield against fate’s blows [8], "immunity" emerges as a multifaceted term that encapsulates both a tangible safeguarding and an abstract state of exemption within different realms of human experience [9, 10, 11].
  1. Meanwhile the town enjoyed an immunity from all the ordinary disorders; or if any case occurred, it ended in this.
    — from The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides
  2. It did not much longer enjoy its immunity from epidemics.
    — from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson
  3. Biological and Social Immunity: or Biological Immunity from Infection, Personal or Group Immunity against Social Contagion.
    — from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. Burgess and Robert Ezra Park
  4. Biological and Social Immunity: or Biological Immunity from Infection, Personal or Group Immunity against Social Contagion.
    — from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. Burgess and Robert Ezra Park
  5. Then nowhere from their inroads will be left to us immunity.
    — from Lysistrata by Aristophanes
  6. In the heroic times, it is not unfrequent for the king to receive presents to purchase freedom from his wrath, or immunity from his exactions.
    — from The Iliad by Homer
  7. I should gorge them with gold, I should grant them immunity for their crimes, and they would be grateful.
    — from The Art of Public Speaking by Dale Carnegie and J. Berg Esenwein
  8. Does fate strike so seldom that you can count on immunity from her blows?
    — from Emile by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
  9. The fact is that the very extravagance of their doctrines and practices seems to ensure their immunity.
    — from Secret societies and subversive movements by Nesta Helen Webster
  10. Charlemagne, the second Alexander, could not contemplate with composure the immunity of the Moslem power on the other side of the Pyrenees.
    — from The Moors in Spain by Stanley Lane-Poole
  11. Terms of surrender: Pardon, immunity to all!
    — from The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle

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