I dote on his very absence.

I dote on his very absence.

Oh, how cruelly sweet are the echoes that start
When Memory plays an old tune on the heart!

Oh, how cruelly sweet are the echoes that start
When Memory plays an old tune on the heart!

Absence diminishes little passions and increases great ones, as
the wind extinguishes candles and fans a fire.
[Fr., read more

Absence diminishes little passions and increases great ones, as
the wind extinguishes candles and fans a fire.
[Fr., L'absence diminue les mediocres passions et augmente les
grandes, comme le vent eteint les bougies et allume le feu.]

Many a man fails to become a thinker only because his memory is too good.

Many a man fails to become a thinker only because his memory is too good.

Don't you remember, sweet Alice, Ben Bolt?
Sweet Alice, whose hair was so brown;
Who wept with read more

Don't you remember, sweet Alice, Ben Bolt?
Sweet Alice, whose hair was so brown;
Who wept with delight when you gave her a smile,
And trembl'd with fear at your frown!

If you have to keep reminding yourself of a thing, perhaps it isn't so.

If you have to keep reminding yourself of a thing, perhaps it isn't so.

Wives in their husbands' absences grow subtler,
And daughters sometimes run off with the butler.

Wives in their husbands' absences grow subtler,
And daughters sometimes run off with the butler.

When a man is out of sight, it is not too long before he is out of mind.

When a man is out of sight, it is not too long before he is out of mind.

Our memory is like a shop in the window of which is exposed now one, now another photograph of the read more

Our memory is like a shop in the window of which is exposed now one, now another photograph of the same person. And as a rule the most recent exhibit remains for some time the only one to be seen.