#absence

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

It's so much darker when a light goes out than it would have been if it had never shone. ↗

— John Steinbeck

#loss #light

I was court-martialled in my absence, and sentenced to death in my absence, so I said they could shoot me in my absence. ↗

— Brendan Behan

#could #death #i #me #said

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. ↗

— Ovid

#acquainted #affliction #am #better #does

In the absence of evidence, superstition. It's a Middle Ages thing. That's my theory anyway. ↗

— Tucker Carlson

#ages #anyway #evidence #middle #middle ages

I wish you to inform the Court that my absence, though deliberate, is not intended in any way to be disrespectful. Nor is it prompted by any fear of the punishment which might be inflicted on me. ↗

— Bram Fischer

#any #court #deliberate #disrespectful #fear

There were a lot of rumors spread about me. Of course, I didn't show up to defend myself, so my absence helped create even more. ↗

— Sean Young

#absence #course #create #defend #even

I said peace is sometimes narrowly interpreted; it's the absence of conflict between nations or something. But peace is more inherent, more basic to human life, human beings, what we feel about each other, what we feel about life around us and what we see in our future. ↗

— Muhammad Yunus

#absence #around #basic #beings #between

It is a sign of the times that the absence of meaningful ID requirements in many states leaves our voting process vulnerable to fraud and allows legal votes to be cancelled out by illegally cast ballots. ↗

— Virgil Goode

#allows #ballots #cancelled #cast #fraud

In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation. There is no safe store of value. ↗

— Alan Greenspan

#absence #confiscation #gold #gold standard #inflation