Conspicuous by his absence. [ Tacitus ]
I dote on his very absence. [ William Shakespeare ]
Absence is all love's crime. [ Beaumont and Fletcher ]
Judicious absence is a weapon. [ Charles Reade ]
Ever absent, ever near;
Still I see thee, still I hear;
Yet I cannot reach thee, dear! [ Francis Kazinczy ]
Days of absence, sad and dreary;
Clothed in sorrow's dark array,
Days of absence, I am weary;
She I love is far away. [ Rousseau ]
Oft in the tranquil hour of night
When stars illume the sky,
I gaze upon each orb of light.
And wish that thou wert by. [ George Linley ]
Absence of occupation is not rest; [ William Cowper ]
It is absence that tries fidelity. [ Mrs. J. Hunter ]
The absent feel and fear every ill. [ Cervantes ]
Achilles absent, was Achilles still. [ Homer ]
What would not I give to wander
Where my old companions dwell?
Absence makes the heart grow fonder:
Isle of Beauty, fare thee well! [ T. H. Bayly, Isle of Beauty ]
'Tis said that absence conquers love;
But oh! believe it not.
I've tried, alas! its power to prove,
But thou art not forgot. [ Frederick W. Thomas ]
Absence of occupation is not rest,
A mind quite vacant is a mind distressed. [ William Cowper ]
All is wholesome in the absence of excess. [ Moliere ]
I will this dreary blank of absence make,
A noble task-time, and will therein strive
To follow excellence, and to overtake
More good than I have won since yet I live. [ Francis Kemble ]
A servant is known by his master's absence. [ Proverb ]
Condemned whole years in absence to deplore,
And image charms he must behold no more. [ Pope ]
Ye flowers that droop forsaken by the spring;
Ye birds that left by summer cease to sing;
Yet trees that fade when autumn heats remove.
Say, is not absence death to those who love? [ Pope ]
I believe absence is a great element of charm. [ Beaconsfield ]
Absence sharpens love, presence strengthens it. [ Proverb ]
Thou art gone from my gaze like a beautiful dream.
And I seek thee in vain by the meadow and stream. [ George Linley ]
All days are nights to see till I see thee,
And nights bright days when dreams do show thee me. [ William Shakespeare ]
Yes - it was love - if thoughts of tenderness.
Tried in temptation, strengthened by distress,
Unmoved by absence, firm in every clime,
And yet - oh more than all! - untired by time.
Which nor defeated hope, nor baffled wile,
Could render sullen were she near to smile,
Nor rage could fire, nor sickness fret to vent
On her one murmur of his discontent;
Which still would meet with joy, with calmness part.
Lest that his look of grief should reach her heart;
Which nought removed, nor menaced to remove -
If there be love in mortals— this was love! [ Byron ]
I have this while with leaden thoughts been pressed;
But I shall, in a more continuate time,
Strike off this score of absence. [ William Shakespeare ]
O friend! O best of friends! Thy absence more
Than the impending night darkens the landscape over. [ Longfellow ]
Thinking of thee, still thee, till thought grew pain. [ Moore ]
A short absence quickens love, a long absence kills it. [ Mirabeau ]
Absence cools moderate passions, but inflames violent ones. [ Proverb ]
There's little pleasure in the house When our gudeman's awa. [ W. J. Mickle ]
In the hope to meet Shortly again, and make our absence sweet. [ Ben Jonson ]
Distance sometimes endears friendship, and absence sweeteneth it. [ Howell ]
The joys of meeting pay the pangs of absence, Else who could bear it? [ Rowe ]
Absence is a cosmetic that softens or disguises the greatest defects.
Sorrow causes more absence of mind and confusion than so-called levity. [ Richter ]
Great affectation and great absence of it are at first sight very similar. [ Whately ]
It is not the absence, but the mastery, of our passions which affords happiness. [ Mme. de Maintenon ]
Where'er I roam, whatever realm to see, my heart, untravelled, fondly turns to thee. [ Goldsmith ]
All violence, all that is dreary and repels, is not power, but the absence of power. [ Emerson ]
Love reckons hours for months, and days for years; and every little absence is an age. [ John Dryden ]
It is sweet to know there is an eye will mark our coming, and look brighter when we come. [ Byron ]
Authors and lovers always suffer some infatuation, from which only absence can set them free. [ Dr. Johnson ]
How few friendships would be lasting if we knew what our best friends say of us in our absence. [ Pascal ]
Wives in their husbands' absences grow subtler, And daughters sometimes run off with the butler. [ Byron ]
Your absence of mind we have borne, till your presence of body came to be called in question by it. [ Charles Lamb ]
Cheerfulness is the friend and helper of all good graces, and the absence of it is certainly a vice. [ Aughey ]
Good nature will always supply the absence of beauty, but beauty cannot supply the absence of good nature. [ Joseph Addison ]
As contraries are known by contraries, so is the delight of presence best known by the torments of absence. [ Alcibiades ]
Absence lessens weak, and intensifies violent, passions, as wind extinguishes a taper and lights up a fire. [ La Roche ]
Coolness, and absence of heat and haste, indicate fine qualities. A gentleman makes no noise, a lady is serene. [ Ralph Waldo Emerson ]
Absence diminishes weak passions and augments great ones; as the wind extinguishes tapers,but increases a conflagration. [ La Rochefoucauld ]
There is no surer mark of the absence of the highest moral and intellectual qualities than a cold reception of excellence. [ S. Bailey ]
When we imagine that we love, it is the presence of the loved one that deceives us: when we truly love, it is absence that proves it. [ Lingrie ]
Death, of all estimated evils, is the only one whose presence never incommoded anybody, and which only causes concern during its absence. [ Arcesilaus ]
Tact is one of the first of mental virtues, the absence of which is often fatal to the best talents. It supplies the place of many talents. [ Simms ]
Most books fail, not so much from a want of ability in their authors, as from an absence in their productions of a thorough development of their ability. [ Bovee ]
The friendship I have conceived will not be impaired by absence; but it may be no unpleasing circumstance to brighten the chain by a renewal of the covenant. [ George Washington ]
Grief is only the memory of widowed affection. The more intense the delight in the presence of the object, the more poignant must be the impression of the absence. [ James Martineau ]
Pale, Pallid, or Wan? All these terms denote an absence of color, but vary in degree, pallid rising upon pale, and wan upon pallid. Paleness in the countenance may be temporary, but pallidness and wanness are caused by sickness, hunger, or fatigue, and are of longer duration. [ Pure English, Hackett And Girvin, 1884 ]