Literary notes about intercourse (AI summary)
In literature the term "intercourse" is employed with a remarkable versatility, encompassing both literal and metaphorical meanings that reflect the manifold dimensions of human and even divine interaction. Some authors use it to denote intimate physical union or sexual relations, as when it describes the natural, life-affirming act [1] or compares it to a quarrel born of contradicting passions [2]. In other contexts it signifies broader forms of communication and association, from the warm social exchanges among friends and nations [3][4] to the more solemn engagements with spiritual beings or the divine [5][6]. The word also appears in discussions of education, etiquette, and the daily rhythms of society, highlighting its role in fostering personal as well as political bonds [7][8]. This deliberate range of applications underlines how "intercourse" functions as a bridge between the tangible and the abstract in diverse literary landscapes [9][10].
- The time of sexual intercourse is agreeable to every creature and productive of good to all.
— from The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 1 - Sexual intercourse can be compared to a quarrel, on account of the contrarieties of love and its tendency to dispute.
— from The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana by Vatsyayana - In place of the old local and national seclusion and self-sufficiency, we have intercourse in every direction, universal inter-dependence of nations.
— from The Communist Manifesto by Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx - Thus the intercourse between gentlemen at once gives them familiarity and furnishes them with an infinite number of subjects on which to talk freely.
— from Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims by François duc de La Rochefoucauld - In this purpose his intercourse with Christian divines greatly helped him.
— from Some Jewish Witnesses For Christ by Aaron Bernstein - His intercourse with heaven and earth, becomes part of his daily food.
— from Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson - Dr. Adams told us, that in some of the Colleges at Oxford, the fellows had excluded the students from social intercourse with them in the common room.
— from Boswell's Life of Johnson by James Boswell - Politics, business, recreation, art, science, the learned professions, polite intercourse, leisure, represent such interests.
— from Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education by John Dewey - Such intercourse is the very breath of life.
— from North and South by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell - By nature grave and inarticulate, he admired recklessness and gaiety in others and was warmed to the marrow by friendly human intercourse.
— from Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
