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"
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
Our hours in love have wings; in absence crutches.
COLLEY CIBBER
Xerxes
Absence is the invisible and incorporeal mother of ideal beauty.
WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR
Imaginary Conversations
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 doesn't always make the heart grow fonder. Sometimes it just teaches us that we can live apart.
MICHAEL FAUDET
Smoke & Mirrors
The absent are never without fault, nor the present without excuse.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
Poor Richard's Almanack, 1736
Let no one be willing to speak ill of the absent.
SEXTUS PROPERTIUS
Elegies
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)"
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
The absent shall not be made heir.
LATIN 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
I dote on his very absence, and I wish them a fair departure.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
The Merchant of Venice
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"
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
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
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
Ever absent, ever near;
Still I see thee, still I hear;
Yet I cannot reach thee, dear!
FRANCIS KAZINCZY
Separation