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Literary notes about withdraw (AI summary)

The term "withdraw" reveals a remarkable range in literary usage, serving both literal and metaphorical functions. In some passages, it suggests a physical retreat—soldiers returning to safe positions or individuals stepping back from social or physical spaces as in the strategic repositioning of troops [1] or the act of removing a hand from contact [2, 3]. In other contexts, the word underscores an emotional or moral recession, such as the quiet extraction of personal opinions [4] or the seclusion from societal follies [5, 6]. Moreover, it can denote a deliberate moving away from established bonds or beliefs, emphasizing a withdrawal not only from physical arenas but also from intellectual or spiritual engagements [7, 8, 9]. This versatile deployment enriches narrative tension and deepens character motivations across various genres.
  1. Seeing the impossibility of its accomplishment I ordered the troops to withdraw, and they were all back in their former positions the next day.
    — from Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Complete by Ulysses S. Grant
  2. Just then the door opened, and I had only time to withdraw my hand, before the ladies came in to breakfast.
    — from Evelina, Or, the History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World by Fanny Burney
  3. With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door behind me.
    — from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
  4. “It don’t matter; I withdraw my opinion, for all that.
    — from The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
  5. These latter, then, usually withdraw from society, where, as soon as it is at all numerous, vulgarity reigns supreme.
    — from The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer; Counsels and Maxims by Arthur Schopenhauer
  6. Withdraw from the idolatry of the superfluous!
    — from Thus Spake Zarathustra: A Book for All and None by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
  7. Withdraw not Thou Thy comfort from me, lest my soul "gasp after thee as a thirsty land."
    — from The Imitation of Christ by à Kempis Thomas
  8. and we still feed our hearts on the virtues we attribute to the beloved, we still withdraw ourselves from the baseness of human nature.
    — from Emile by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
  9. I simply wish to refuse allegiance to the State, to withdraw and stand aloof from it effectually.
    — from Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau

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