#absence

I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear. ↗

— Nelson Mandela

#absence #afraid #brave #brave man #conquers

Would that thy love, beloved, had less trust in me, that it might be more anxious! ↗

— Héloïse d'Argenteuil

#desire #fear #jealousy #longing #love

We seem, as it were, to have conquered and peopled half the world in a fit of absence of mind. ↗

— John Robert Seeley

#conquered #fit #half #mind #peopled

It's hard being left behind. I wait for Henry, not knowing where he is, wondering if he's okay. It's hard to be the one who stays. I keep myself busy. Time goes faster that way. I go to sleep alone, and wake up alone. I take walks. I work until I'm tired. I watch the wind play with the trash that's been under the snow all winter. Everything seems simple until you think about it. Why is love intensified by absence? Long ago, men went to sea, and women waited for them, standing on the edge of the water, scanning the horizon for the tiny ship. Now I wait for Henry. He vanishes unwillingly, without warning. I wait for him. Each moment that I wait feels like a year, an eternity. Each moment is as slow and transparent as glass. Through each moment I can see infinite moments lined up, waiting. Why has he gone where I cannot follow? ↗

— Audrey Niffenegger

#love

Every one knows, that the mind will not be kept from contemplating what it loves in the midst of crowds and business. Hence come those frequent absences, so observable in conversation; for whilst the body is confined to present company, the mind is flown to that which it delights in. ↗

— Mary Astell

#body #business #come #company #confined

Not longer loved or fostered by religion, beauty is lifted from its face as a mask, and its absence exposes features on that face which threaten to become incomprehensible to man. ↗

— Hans Urs von Balthasar

#beauty #become #exposes #face #features

When I came back to Dublin I was courtmartialed in my absence and sentenced to death in my absence, so I said they could shoot me in my absence. ↗

— Brendan Behan

#back #came #could #death #dublin

Program testing can be used to show the presence of bugs, but never to show their absence! ↗

— Edsger Dijkstra

#bugs #never #presence #program #show

Absence - that common cure of love. ↗

— Lord Byron

#absence #common #cure

The appalling crackdown that we witnessed in Hama and other Syrian cities on 30 and 31 July only erode the regime's legitimacy and increase resentment. In the absence of an end to the senseless violence and a genuine process of political reform, we will continue to pursue further EU sanctions. ↗

— William Hague

#appalling #cities #continue #end #erode