The absent are like children, helpless to defend themselves.

The answers were maddeningly absent—it was like trying to remember a song that you knew made you feel a certain way, without a title,…

— Jennifer Egan

The friendlies were South Vietnamese women and children, helpless victims in a war they did not understand.

— John Whitehead

“There are always those who take it upon themselves to defend God, as if Ultimate Reality, as if the sustaining frame of existence were…

— Yann Martel

They were not mentioned in the Declaration of Independence, they were absent in the Constitution and they were invisible in the new political democracy.…

— Howard Zinn

Anger clearly has its proper place at work, which is neither wholly absent nor ever present. The manager who is an emotional blank is…

— Julian Baggini

It's Simon, he's missing." Ahh." said Magnus delicately "Missing what exactly?" Missing!" Jace repeated "As in gone, absent, notable for his lack of presence,…

— Cassandra Clare

... if we are ashamed to imitate our Lord's sufferings, which He endured for us, and to suffer as He suffered, it is obvious…

— Symeon the New Theologian

“You may not appreciate the presence of good health, but you will definitely regret the absence of good health, because health is happiness.”

— Amit Kalantri

If measure and symmetry are absent from any composition in any degree, ruin awaits both the ingredients and the composition... Measure and symmetry are…

— Socrates

For my own part, I would rather be in company with a dead man than with an absent one; for if the dead man…

— Anonymous

The interesting thing about an absent father is, for a child, you don't know he's absent. You just think he's... tardy.

— Jonathan Majors

They are enthusiasts, devotees. Addicts. Something about the circus stirs their souls, and they ache for it when it is absent. They seek each…

— Erin Morgenstern

Emma was a shocking driver, simultaneously sloppy and petrified, and for the first fifty miles had been absent-mindedly driving with her spectacles on top…

— David Nicholls

In a general way, the literature of the twentieth century is essentially psychological; and psychology consists of describing states of the soul by displaying…

— Simone Weil

Majority decisions tend to be made without engaging the systematic thought and critical thinking skills of the individuals in the group. Given the force…

— Anonymous