quotations about 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
Sometimes, when one person is missing, the whole world seems depopulated.
ALPHONSE DE LAMARTINE
Premieres Meditations Poetiques
To him that is absent, all things succeed amiss.
CERVANTES
Don Quixote
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
The absent are never without fault, nor the present without excuse.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
Poor Richard's Almanack, 1736
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
Let no one be willing to speak ill of the absent.
SEXTUS PROPERTIUS
Elegies
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
I dote on his very absence, and I wish them a fair departure.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
The Merchant of Venice
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)"
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
Wives in their husband's absences grow subtler,
And daughters sometimes run off with the butler.
LORD BYRON
Don Juan
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
The absent shall not be made heir.
LATIN PROVERB
What shall I do with all the days and hours
That must be counted ere I see thy face?
FRANCES ANNE KEMBLE
Absence
Ever absent, ever near;
Still I see thee, still I hear;
Yet I cannot reach thee, dear!
FRANCIS KAZINCZY
Separation
The absent are like children; they are helpless to defend themselves.
CHARLES READE
Foul Play
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