Absence from whom we love is worse than death, and frustrates hope severer than despair.
Interpretation
Being away from loved ones feels more painful than death, as it intensifies our longing and frustration.
This quote reflects the deep emotional pain that comes from being separated from someone we love. The idea that absence can be worse than death emphasizes how strong our connections to others are, and how the longing for their presence can lead to greater despair and hopelessness than the finality of death itself.
In practice
A eulogy at a funeral emphasizing the pain of losing a loved one.
Knowledge, a rude unprofitable mass, the mere materials with which wisdom builds, till smoothed and squared and fitted to its place, does but encumber whom it seems to enrich. Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much; wisdom is humble that he knows no more.
This cabin, Mary, in my sight appears,_x000D_ _x000D_ Built as it has been in our waning years,_x000D_ _x000D_ A rest afforded to our weary feet,_x000D_ _x000D_ Preliminary to - the last retreat.
Strength may wield the ponderous spade, May turn the clod, and wheel the compost home; But elegance, chief grace the garden shows, And most attractive, is the fair result Of thought, the creature of a polished mind.
No wisdom that she may gain by experience and reflection hereafter, will compensate the loss of her present hilarity.
Even in the stifling bosom of the town,_x000D_ _x000D_ A garden, in which nothing thrives, has charms_x000D_ _x000D_ That soothes the rich possessor; much consol'd,_x000D_ _x000D_ That here and there some sprigs of mournful mint,_x000D_ _x000D_ Or nightshade, or valerian, grace the well_x000D_ _x000D_ He cultivates.
Now stir the fire, and close the shutters fast, Let fall the curtains, wheel the sofa around, And while the bubbling and loud-hissing urn Throws up a steamy column, and the cups That cheer but not inebriate, wait on each, So let us welcome peaceful evening in
If the moon smiled, she would resemble you. You leave the same impression Of something beautiful, but annihilating.
Out of sorrow entire worlds have been built out of longing great wonders have been willed they're only little tears darling let them spill and lay your head upon my shoulder.
You have made me ashamed of the wasted years. You have made me acknowledge that no darkness has ever been deep enough to extinguish my personal knowledge of love. And all around me in this world I see evidence of love. I see love. I see it in the human struggle. I see its undeniable penetration in all that humans have accomplished in their poetry, their painting, their music, their love of one another and refusal to accept suffering as their lot.
Love is the most universal, the most tremendous and the most mystical of cosmic forces. Love is the primal and universal psychic energy. Love is a sacred reserve of energy; it is like the blood of spiritual evolution.
It never leaves, not with someone we love. Their presence burns too vivid in our memories. Happen that is as it should be, for otherwise we would too easy forget.
This is how it works _x000D_ You peer inside yourself _x000D_ You take the things you like _x000D_ And try to love the things you took _x000D_ And then you take that love you made _x000D_ And stick it into some _x000D_ Someone else's heart _x000D_ Pumping someone else's blood.
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