quotations about absence
Absence! is not the soul torn by it
From more than light, or life, or breath?
'Tis Lethe's gloom, but not its quiet--
The pain without the peace of death!
THOMAS CAMPBELL
"Absence"
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
Absence is the enemy of love.
ITALIAN PROVERB
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
Absence doesn't always make the heart grow fonder. Sometimes it just teaches us that we can live apart.
MICHAEL FAUDET
Smoke & Mirrors
Wives in their husband's absences grow subtler,
And daughters sometimes run off with the butler.
LORD BYRON
Don Juan
The absent are never without fault, nor the present without excuse.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
Poor Richard's Almanack, 1736
Absent or dead, still let a friend be dear
(A sigh the absent claims, the dead a tear).
ALEXANDER POPE
Epistle to Robert Earl of Oxford
The absent shall not be made heir.
LATIN PROVERB
Ever absent, ever near;
Still I see thee, still I hear;
Yet I cannot reach thee, dear!
FRANCIS KAZINCZY
Separation
You must know of something's existence before you can notice its absence.
E.L. KONIGSBURG
The View from Saturday
Absence is the invisible and incorporeal mother of ideal beauty.
WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR
Imaginary Conversations
Unless my absence can make you sad
Unless my presence can make you glad
Then there'll never be contentment for me
Unless your heart is mine
EDDIE FISHER
"Unless", Wish You Were Here
Perchance all des'late and forlorn
These eyes shall miss thee many a year;
But unforgotten every charm--
Tho' lost to sight, to mem'ry dear.
RUTHVEN JENKINS
"Sweetheart, Goodbye"
The heart may think it knows better: the senses know that absence blots people out. We have really no absent friends.
ELIZABETH BOWEN
The Death of the Heart
With what a deep devotedness of woe
I wept thy absence--o'er and o'er again
Thinking of thee, still thee, till thought grew pain,
And memory, like a drop that, night and day,
Falls cold and ceaseless, wore my heart away!
THOMAS MOORE
Lalla Rookh
In the absence of your love
And in the absence of human touch
I have decided
I'm throwing my arms around, around Paris
Because only stone and steel accept my love
MORRISSEY
"I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris"
Love reckons hours for months, and days for years;
And every little absence is an age.
JOHN DRYDEN
Amphitryon
What shall I do with all the days and hours
That must be counted ere I see thy face?
FRANCES ANNE KEMBLE
Absence
The absent are like children; they are helpless to defend themselves.
CHARLES READE
Foul Play