#absence

In 1916 I was discharged from military service, or rather, given a sort of leave of absence on the understanding that I might be recalled within a few months. And so I was a free man, at least for a while. ↗

— George Grosz

#discharged #few #free #free man #given

The greatest threat to freedom is the absence of criticism. ↗

— Wole Soyinka

#criticism #freedom #greatest #greatest threat #threat

Absence is the enemy of love and the friend of friendship. ↗

— C.J. Langenhoven

#friendship #love #friendship

Absence is to love what wind is to fire; it extinguishes the small, it inflames the great. ↗

— Roger de Bussy-Rabutin

#long-distance-love #longing #love #separation #love

Everything seems simple until you think about it. Why is love intensified by absence? ↗

— Audrey Niffenegger

#audrey-niffenegger #love #the-time-traveler-s-wife #love

You are my angel and my damnation; in your presence I reach divine ecstasy and in your absence I descent to hell. ↗

— Isabel Allende

#angel #damnation #ecstasy #love #love

People, he thought, were as hungry for a sight of joy as he had always been--for a moment's relief from that gray load of suffering which seemed so inexplicable and unnecessary. He had never been able to understand why men should be unhappy. ↗

— Ayn Rand

#happiness #happy #joy #pain #relief

And it is strange that absence can feel like presence. ↗

— Ally Condie

#ally-condie #crossed #dystopia #dystopian-fiction #page-

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