Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922)/Absence

ABSENCE

(See also Memory)

11

Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

Thomas Haynes Bayly—Isle of Beauty

12

Wives in their husbands’ absences grow subtler,
And daughters sometimes run off with the butler.

Byron—Don Juan. Canto III. St. 22

13

Absent in body, but present in spirit.

I Corinthians. V. 3

14

Where’er I roam, whatever realms to see,
My heart untravelled, fondly turns to thee;
Still to my brother turns, with ceaseless pain,
And drags at each remove a lengthening chain.

Goldsmith—Traveller. L. 7

15

Achilles absent, was Achilles still.

Homer—Iliad. Bk. 22. L. 415. Pope's trans.

16

In the hope to meet
Shortly again, and make our absence sweet.

Ben Jonson—Underwoods. Miscellaneous Poems. LIX.

17

Ever absent, ever near;
Still I see thee, still I hear;
Yet I cannot reach thee, dear!

Francis Kazinczy—Separation.

18

What shall I do with all the days and hours
That must be counted ere I see thy face?
How shall I charm the interval that lowers
Between this time and that sweet time of grace?

Frances Anne Kemble—Absence.

19

Cum autem sublatus fuerit ab oculis, etiam

cito transit a mente.

But when he (man) shall have been taken from sight, he quickly goes also out of mind.

Thomas à Kempis—Imitation of Christ. Bk. I. Ch. XXIII. 1,

20

Your absence of mind we have borne, till your presence of body came to be called in question by it.

Lamb—Amicus Redivivus.

21

For with G. D., to be absent from the body is

sometimes (not to speak it profanely) to be present with the Lord.

Lamb—Oxford in the Vacation.

22

L'absence diminue les médiocres passions et augmente les grandes, comme le vent éteint les bougies et allume le feu.

Absence diminishes little passions and increases great ones, as the wind extinguishes candles and fans a fire.

La Rochefoucauld—Maximes. 276.

23

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—Song.

24

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.

25

For there’s nae luck about the house;
There’s nae luck at aw;
There’s little pleasure in the house
When our gudeman's awa.

 Attributed to W. J. Mickle—There's Nae Luck Aboot the House. Ballad of Cumnor Hall. Claimed for Jean Adam. Evidence in favor of Mickle. Claimed also for MacPherson. MS. copy found among his papers after his death.

1

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!

Moore—Lalla Rookh. The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan.

2

Condemned whole years in absence to deplore,
And image charms he must behold no more.

Pope—Eloise to Abelard. L. 361.

3

Absenti nemo ne nocuisse velit.

Let no one be willing to speak ill of the absent.

Propertius—Elegiæ. II. 19. 32. Chilo in Life by Diogenes Laertius. (Modified by Thucydides. II. 45.)

4

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—Days of Absence.

5

Among the defects of the bill [Lord Derby's] which are numerous, one provision is conspicuous by its presence and another by its absence.

Lord John Russell—Address to the Electors of the City of London, April 6, 1859. Phrase used by Lord Brougham. Quoted by Chenier in one of his tragedies. Idea used by Henry Labouchère in Truth, Feb. 11, 1886, and by Earl Granville Feb. 21, 1873. Lady Brownlow—Reminiscences of a Septuagenarian.

(See also Tacitus)

6

I dote on his very absence, and I wish them a fair departure.

Merchant of Venice. Act I. Sc. 2. L. 120.

7

All days are nights to see till I see thee,
And nights bright days when dreams do show thee me.

Sonnet XLIII.

8

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.

Sonnet XCVII.

9

Præfulgebant Cassius atque Brutus eo ipso, quod effigies eorum non videbantur.

Cassius and Brutus were the more distinguished for that very circumstance that their portraits were absent.

Tacitus—Annals. Bk. III. Ch. 76. From the funeral of Junia, wife of Cassius and sister to Brutus, when the insignia of twenty illustrious families were carried in the procession.

(See also Russell)

10

'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 Conquers Love.

11

Since you have waned from us,
Fairest of women!
I am a darkened cage
Songs cannot hymn in.
My songs have followed you,
Like birds the summer;
Ah! bring them back to me,
Swiftly, dear comer!
Seraphim,
Her to hymn.
Might leave their portals;
And at my feet learn
The harping of mortals!

Francis Thompson—A Carrier Song.