At dramatic rehearsals, the only author that's better than an absent one is a dead one.

- George S. Kaufman

The absent are never without fault. Nor the present without excuse.

- Michael Caine

Though the dungeon, the scourge, and the executioner be absent, the guilty mind can apply the goad and scorch with blows.

- Lucretius

You need the House, you need the Senate and you need the administration. And absent one of them, you're not going to get a heck of a lot done.

- John Chafee

Adam's abduction was our private hell - but it was not an isolated incident. On any given day, any number of children are absent from their homes for diverse and numerous reasons.

- John Walsh

Talk well of the absent whenever you have the opportunity.

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Be generous with kindly words, especially about those who are absent.

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The people who are absent are the ideal; those who are present seem to be quite commonplace.

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I don't want to be an absent mother. Otherwise, why have children?

- Indira Varma

From even the greatest of horrors, irony is seldom absent.

- H. P. Lovecraft

Never find fault with the absent.

- Alexander Pope

The proposition that humans have mental characteristics wholly absent in non-humans is inconsistent with the theory of evolution.

- Gary L. Francione

My father was absent and he was a hero to me.

- Greta Scacchi

Knowledge is recognition of something absent; it is a salutation, not an embrace.

- George Santayana

The absent are like children, helpless to defend themselves.

- Charles Reade

If there's no relationship with a father who's absent, nobody talks about it.

- Charles B. Rangel

I suppose that by being absent from the music business, it appeared that I just dropped out, but really I never did. I was continuously working and doing various things.

- Cat Stevens

Paul Riser tells it in an interesting way; he dissects it and tells the structure, you know, 'you don't mention that part here.' But that's what's interesting about it and the people who are absent are interesting too.

- Bob Saget

Israel has been absent for many years from entire regions in the world.

- Avigdor Lieberman

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

- Ambrose Bierce