quotations about absence
Everyone agrees that the absent are warned by a ringing in the ears when they are being talked about.
PLINY
Naturalis Historia
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
The absent shall not be made heir.
LATIN 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
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
Absence is the invisible and incorporeal mother of ideal beauty.
WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR
Imaginary Conversations
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
Absence is the enemy of love.
ITALIAN PROVERB
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
Absence doesn't always make the heart grow fonder. Sometimes it just teaches us that we can live apart.
MICHAEL FAUDET
Smoke & Mirrors
You must know of something's existence before you can notice its absence.
E.L. KONIGSBURG
The View from Saturday
The absent are like children; they are helpless to defend themselves.
CHARLES READE
Foul Play
Wives in their husband's absences grow subtler,
And daughters sometimes run off with the butler.
LORD BYRON
Don Juan
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
Ever absent, ever near;
Still I see thee, still I hear;
Yet I cannot reach thee, dear!
FRANCIS KAZINCZY
Separation
Greater things are believed of those who are absent.
TACITUS
Histories
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"
What shall I do with all the days and hours
That must be counted ere I see thy face?
FRANCES ANNE KEMBLE
Absence
I dote on his very absence, and I wish them a fair departure.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
The Merchant of Venice