Absence diminishes mediocre passions and increases great ones, as the wind extinguishes candles and fans fires.
Francois de La RochefoucauldHappiness is the absence of the striving for happiness.
ZhuangziCourage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.
Mark TwainThe absence of alternatives clears the mind marvelously.
Henry A. KissingerAbsence of occupation is not rest, a mind quite vacant is a mind distressed.
William CowperAbsence - that common cure of love.
Lord ByronThere is nothing so unthinkable as thought, unless it be the entire absence of thought.
Samuel ButlerReal magic in relationships means an absence of judgment of others.
Wayne DyerFreedom in general may be defined as the absence of obstacles to the realization of desires.
Bertrand RussellGod is absence. God is the solitude of man.
Jean-Paul SartreI 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 MandelaTalk well of the absent whenever you have the opportunity.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheWives in their husbands' absences grow subtler, and daughters sometimes run off with the butler.
Lord ByronAbsence of proof is not proof of absence.
William CowperAbsence from whom we love is worse than death and frustrates hope severer than despair.
William CowperAbsence from those we love is self from self - a deadly banishment.
William ShakespeareThe happiness of a man in this life does not consist in the absence, but in the mastery of his passions.
Alfred Lord TennysonMan is a credulous animal and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones.
Bertrand RussellNever find fault with the absent.
Alexander PopeThe people who are absent are the ideal, those who are present seem to be quite commonplace.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheBe generous with kindly words, especially about those who are absent.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheKnowledge is recognition of something absent, it is a salutation, not an embrace.
George SantayanaFriendship, like love, is destroyed by long absence, though it may be increased by short intermissions.
Samuel JohnsonIn the absence of justice, what is sovereignty but organized robbery?
Saint AugustineCan miles truly separate you from friends... If you want to be with someone you love aren't you already there?
Richard BachWhatever work we do, whatever sacrifices we perform, they are not of much use in the absence of love.
Sai BabaYou'll find boredom where there is the absence of a good idea.
Earl NightingaleAbsence sharpens love, presence strengthens it.
Thomas FullerFreedom is not the absence of commitments, but the ability to choose - and commit myself to - what is best for me.
Paulo CoelhoThe meaning of peace is the absence of opposition to socialism.
Karl MarxNever part without loving words to think of during your absence. It may be that you will not meet again in this life.
Jean PaulLet 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.
OvidAbsence blots people out. We really have no absent friends.
Ambrose BiercePeace is not absence of conflict, it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means.
Ronald ReaganThough the dungeon, the scourge and the executioner be absent, the guilty mind can apply the goad and scorch with blows.
LucretiusThe enemy of art is the absence of limitations.
Orson WellesThe absent are never without fault, nor the present without excuse.
Benjamin FranklinTruth has to persist unaffected in the past, present and future. That, which is absent in two states, how can it be true?
Sai BabaYour progress is reflected back as Grace, your decline is reflected back as its absence. The mirror just reflects. It has no partiality or prejudice.
Sai BabaTotal absence of humor renders life impossible.
Sidonie Gabrielle ColetteI dote on his very absence.
William ShakespeareGrace is the absence of everything that indicates pain or difficulty, hesitation or incongruity.
William HazlittThe gentleness, modesty, and sweetness of her character were warmly expatiated on, that sweetness which makes so essential a part of every woman's worth in the judgment of man that, though he sometimes loves where it is not, he can never believe it absent.
Jane AustenThe whole religious complexion of the modern world is due to the absence from Jerusalem of a lunatic asylum.
Thomas PaineIn the matter of furnishing, I find a certain absence of ugliness far worse than ugliness.
Sidonie Gabrielle ColetteIn the absence of sound oversight, responsible businesses are forced to compete against unscrupulous and underhanded businesses, who are unencumbered by any restrictions on activities that might harm the environment, or take advantage of middle-class families, or threaten to bring down the entire financial system.
Barack Obama