quotations about absence
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
What shall I do with all the days and hours
That must be counted ere I see thy face?
FRANCES ANNE KEMBLE
Absence
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
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
To him that is absent, all things succeed amiss.
CERVANTES
Don Quixote
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"
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
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
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
Absence is the moonlight of affection.
LETITIA ELIZABETH LANDON
The Fate of Adelaide
If you should leave me
I know it would grieve me
So honey please remember
Absence makes the heart grow fonder
For somebody else
DEAN MARTIN
"Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder (For Somebody Else)"
Let no one be willing to speak ill of the absent.
SEXTUS PROPERTIUS
Elegies
The absent are never without fault, nor the present without excuse.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
Poor Richard's Almanack, 1736
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 hope to meet
Shortly again, and make our absence sweet.
BEN JONSON
Underwoods
The farther off, the more desired; thus lovers tie their knot.
HENRY HOWARD
The Faithfull Lover Declareth His Paines
The absent shall not be made heir.
LATIN PROVERB
But aye the tear comes in my eye
To think on him that's far away.
ROBERT BURNS
The Bonie Lad That's Far Away
Greater things are believed of those who are absent.
TACITUS
Histories
Distance sometimes endears friendship, and absence sweeteneth it.
JAMES HOWELL
Familiar Letters