#absence

Instead, in the absence of respect for human rights, science and its offspring technology have been used in this century as brutal instruments for oppression. ↗

— John Charles Polanyi

#been #brutal #century #human #human rights

Barbarism is the absence of standards to which appeal can be made. ↗

— Jose Ortega y Gasset

#appeal #barbarism #made #standards #which

The heart may think it knows better: the senses know that absence blots people out. We really have no absent friends. ↗

— Elizabeth Bowen

#absent #better #blots #friends #heart

Making love to me is amazing. Wait, I meant: making love, to me, is amazing. The absence of two little commas nearly transformed me into a sex god.
 ↗

— Dark Jar Tin Zoo

#amazement #amazing #commas #editing #funny

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

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

Absence blots people out. We really have no absent friends. ↗

— Ambrose Bierce

#absent #blots #friends #out #people