“Absence is a curious thing. When friends are absent, they seem to loom ever larger, till the lack of them is all one can feel.”

“If the portraits of our absent friends are pleasant to us, which renew our memory of them and relieve our regret for their absence by a false and empty consolation, how much more pleasant are letters which bring us the written characters of the absent friend.”

“But restraint is the only one sort of control, and absence of restraint isn't freedom. It's not control that's lacking when one feels 'free', but the objectionable control of force.”

“Life is still as never was,One Seems dead yet still is alive.Man frets for things, things he can buy,All's for sale but not life.Life is there when a friend is there,A friend like you worth more than life.”

“The best friends you will ever have are the ones who don't make you feel like you owe them a damn thing.”

“The English language lacks the words to mourn an absence. For the loss of a parent, grandparent, spouse, child or friend, we have all manner of words and phrases, some helpful some not. Still we are conditioned to say something, even if it is only “I’m sorry for your loss.” But for an absence, for someone who was never there at all, we are wordless to capture that particular emptiness. For those who deeply want children and are denied them, those missing babies hover like silent ephemeral shadows over their lives. Who can describe the feel of a tiny hand that is never held?”