quotations about absence
Absence not long enough to root out quite
All love, increases love at second sight.
THOMAS MAY
Henry II
Tho' lost to sight, to mem'ry dear
Thou ever wilt remain.
GEORGE LINLEY
Tho' Lost to Sight
We live together separately
We don't want to fall apart
But every time we kiss there's an emptiness
An absence of the heart
DEANA CARTER
"Absence of the Heart"
Your absence of mind we have borne, till your presence of body came to be called in question by it.
CHARLES LAMB
"Amicus Redivivus", Last Essays of Elia
Absence and death are the same--only that in death there is no suffering.
WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR
letter to Robert Browning, Walter Savage Landor: Last Days, Letters and Conversations
As 'tis ever common
That men are merriest when they are from home.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Henry V
Out of sight, out of mind.
HOMER
Odyssey
Achilles absent, was Achilles still.
HOMER
The Iliad
Friends, though absent, are still present.
CICERO
De Amicitia
Days of absence, sad and dreary,
Clothed in sorrow's dark array---
Days of absence, I am weary;
She I love is far away.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU
Days of Absence
Absence sharpens love, presence strengthens it.
THOMAS FULLER
Gnomologia
Absence is to love what wind is to a fire; it puts out the little, it kindles the great.
ROGER DE BUSSY-RABUTIN
Epigram
Everyone agrees that the absent are warned by a ringing in the ears when they are being talked about.
PLINY
Naturalis Historia
Absence is the enemy of love.
ITALIAN PROVERB
Absence is the moonlight of affection.
LETITIA ELIZABETH LANDON
The Fate of Adelaide
Think not, O thou guide of my youth, that absence can impair my respect, or interposing trackless deserts blot your reverend figure from my memory.... By every remove, I only drag a greater length of chain.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH
The Citizen of the World
Thou art gone from my gaze like a beautiful dream,
And I seek thee in vain by the meadow and stream.
GEORGE LINLEY
Thou Art Gone
To him that is absent, all things succeed amiss.
CERVANTES
Don Quixote
What? Do you dare smile and suggest for a moment that just because of the Absence between us I cannot make myself vivid to you? Ho! Silly boy! Don't you know that the plainest sort of black ink throbs more than some blood--and the touch of the softest hand is a harsh caress compared to the touch of a reasonably shrewd pen? Here--now, I say--this very moment: Lift this letter of mine to your face, and swear--if you're honestly able to--that you can't smell the rose in my hair!
ELEANOR HALLOWELL ABBOTT
Molly Make-Believe
It takes time for the absent to assume their true shape in our thoughts. After death they take on a firmer outline and then cease to change.
COLETTE
Earthly Paradise