Virginity is noted only in its absence.
—Italian Proverb
Where you used to be, there is a hole in the world, which I find myself constantly walking around in the daytime, and falling in at night. I miss you like hell.
—Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892–1950) American Poet, Playwright, Feminist
As the presence of those we love is as a double life, so absence, in its anxious longing and sense of vacancy, is as a foretaste of death.
—Anna Brownell Jameson (1794–1860) Irish-born Literary, Art Critic
The absence of war is not peace.
—Harry S. Truman (1884–1972) American Head of State
Absence of occupation is not rest; a mind quite vacant is a mind distressed.
—William Cowper (1731–1800) English Anglican Poet, Hymn writer
Friendship, like love, is destroyed by long absence, though it may be increased by short intermissions.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Absence, like death, sets a seal on the image of those we love: we cannot realize the intervening changes which time may have effected.
—Oliver Goldsmith (1730–74) Irish Novelist, Playwright, Poet
The meaning of peace is the absence of opposition to socialism.
—Karl Marx (1818–1883) German Philosopher, Economist
You’ll find boredom where there is an absence of a good idea.
—Earl Nightingale (1921–89) American Motivational Speaker, Author
You cannot shave a man’s head in his absence.
—African Proverb
Absence in love is like water upon fire; a little quickens, but much extinguishes it.
—Hannah More
Absence of proof is not proof of absence.
—Anonymous
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 (1873–1954) French Novelist, Performer
Absence sharpens love, presence strengthens it.
—Thomas Fuller (1608–61) English Cleric, Historian
A short absence is the safest.
—Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso) (c.43 BCE–c.18 CE) Roman Poet
Absences are a good influence in love and keep it bright and delicate.
—Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–94) Scottish Novelist
Absence makes the heart grow fonder.
—Common Proverb
Our hours in love have wings; in absence, crutches.
—Colley Cibber (1671–1757) English Playwright, Poet, Actor
Absolute liberty is absence of restraint; responsibility is restraint; therefore, the ideally free individual is responsible to himself.
—Henry Adams (1838–1918) American Historian, Man of Letters
Salt water and absence wash away love.
—Common Proverb
Peace is not the absence of war but the presence of justice.
—Harrison Ford (b.1942) American Actor
If … happiness is the absence of fever then I will never know happiness. For I am posessed by a fever for knowledge, experience and creation.
—Anais Nin (1903–77) French-American Essayist
Absence lessens half-hearted passions, and increases great ones, as the wind puts out candles and yet stirs up the fire.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
The absent are always in the wrong
—English Proverb
In the absence of honest men, they made my father mayor.
—Spanish Proverb
Woman absent is woman dead.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist
No more we meet in yonder bowers Absence has made me prone to roving; But older, firmer hearts than ours, Have found monotony in loving.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
The people who are absent are the ideal; those who are present seem to be quite commonplace.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Distance of time and place generally cure what they seem to aggravate; and taking leave of our friends resembles taking leave of the world, of which it has been said, that it is not death, but dying, which is terrible.
—Henry Fielding (1707–54) English Novelist, Dramatist
How like a winter hath my absence been. From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year! What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen, What old December’s bareness everywhere!
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Absence from those we love is self from self—a deadly banishment.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Absence is one of the most useful ingredients of family life, and to dose it rightly is an art like any other.
—Freya Stark (1893–1993) British Explorer, Writer
Long absence changes friends.
—French Proverb
Discouragement is not the absence of adequacy but the absence of courage.
—Neal A. Maxwell (1926–2004) American Mormon Religious Leader
Absence is a foe to love; away from the eyes, away from the heart.
—Italian Proverb
Never find fault with the absent.
—Common Proverb
Grace is the absence of everything that indicates pain or difficulty, hesitation or incongruity.
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist
True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68) American Civil Rights Leader, Clergyman
Where choice begins, Paradise ends, innocence ends, for what is Paradise but the absence of any need to choose this action?
—Arthur Miller (1915–2005) American Playwright, Essayist
Peace is not an absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice.
—Baruch Spinoza (1632–77) Dutch Philosopher, Theologian
In the absence of justice, what is sovereignty but organized robbery?
—Augustine of Hippo (354–430) Roman-African Christian Philosopher
The absence of flaw in beauty is itself a flaw.
—Havelock Ellis (1859–1939) British Sexologist, Physician, Social Reformer
As regards the celebrated “struggle for life,” it seems to me for the present to have been rather asserted than proved. It does occur, but as the exception; the general aspect of life is not hunger and distress, but rather wealth, luxury, even absurd prodigality—where there is a struggle it is a struggle for power.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
Sometimes, when one person is missing, the whole world seems depopulated.
—Alphonse de Lamartine (1790–1869) French Poet, Politician, Historian
Let me tell you I am better acquainted with you for a long absence, as men are with themselves for a long affliction: absence does but hold off a friend, to make one see him the truer.
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744) English Poet
When I came back to Dublin I was court marshaled in my absence and sentenced to death in my absence, so I said they could shoot me in my absence
—Brendan Behan (1923–64) Irish Poet, Novelist, Playwright
Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
—Carl Sagan (1934–96) American Astronomer
Absence and a friendly neighbor washes away love.
—Common Proverb
Absence from whom we love is worse than death, and frustrates hope severer than despair.
—William Cowper (1731–1800) English Anglican Poet, Hymn writer
When delicate and feeling souls are separated, there is not a feature in the sky, not a movement of the elements, not an aspiration of the breeze, but hints some cause for a lover’s apprehension.
—Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) Irish-born British Playwright, Poet, Elected Rep