All 6 Uses of
abstain
in
War and Peace
- Boris, speaking with deliberation, told them in pure, correct French many interesting details about the armies and the court, carefully abstaining from expressing an opinion of his own about the facts he was recounting.†
Chpt 5
- Each man lives for himself, using his freedom to attain his personal aims, and feels with his whole being that he can now do or abstain from doing this or that action; but as soon as he has done it, that action performed at a certain moment in time becomes irrevocable and belongs to history, in which it has not a free but a predestined significance.†
Chpt 9
- It is easy now to understand the significance of these events—if only we abstain from attributing to the activity of the mass aims that existed only in the heads of a dozen individuals—for the events and results now lie before us.†
Chpt 15 *
- I lift it, but ask myself: could I have abstained from lifting my arm at the moment that has already passed?†
Chpt 15
- But I am not now abstaining from doing so at the first moment when I asked the question.†
Chpt 15
- That I did not lift my arm a moment later does not prove that I could have abstained from lifting it then.†
Chpt 15
Definition:
-
(abstain as in: abstained from alcohol) choose not to do something