Grocott & Ward, comps. Grocott’s Familiar Quotations, 6th ed. 189-?.
Absence
In the hope to meet
Shortly again, and make our absence sweet.
Ben Jonson.—Underwoods, an Elegy.
Distance sometimes endears friendship, and absence sweeteneth it.
Howell.—Familiar Letters, Book I., Section I., No. 6.
An hour or two
Never breaks squares in love; he comes in time
That comes at all; absence is all love’s crime.
Beaumont and Fletcher.—The Widow, Act II. Scene 2.
Absence makes the heart grow fonder.
Thomas Haynes Bailey.—Isle of Beauty; Odes to Rosa.
What vigour absence adds to love.
Flatman.—Weeping at parting, a song.
Absence in most, that quenches love,
And cools the warm desire;
The ardour of my heart improves,
And makes the flame aspire.
Cotton.—A Song, Verse 2.
Friends, though absent, are still present.
Cicero.—On Friendship, Chapter VII.
He shone with the greater splendour because he was not seen.
Tacitus.—Annals 3, 76.