The Lord withdraws when He is denied, and what is taken by the undeserving does not avail them unto salvation, since the saving grace is turned into ashes and holiness departs. Cyprian
When the mind is not dissipated upon extraneous things, nor diffused over the world about us through the senses, it withdraws within itself, and of its own accord ascends to the contemplation of God. Basil of Caesarea
Whatever withdraws us from the power of our senses whatever makes the past, the distant, or the future predominate over the present, advances us in the dignity of thinking beings. Samuel Johnson
Thinking withdraws radically and for its own sake from this world and its evidential nature, whereas science profits from a possible withdrawal for the sake of specific results. Hannah Arendt
Absolute power by virtue of its very nature withdraws itself from all specification. Theodor Mommsen
This bird sees the white man come and the Indian withdraw, but it withdraws not. Its untamed voice is still heard above the tinkling of the forge... It remains to remind us of aboriginal nature. Henry David Thoreau