You say, The sensed absence of God and the sensed presence…

“You say, The sensed absence of God and the sensed presence amount to much the same thing, only in reverse.”

Margaret Atwood

About This Quote

This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation.

Notes that absence and presence of God are inversely related, suggesting similar existential impact.

In simple terms: Absence and presence mirror each other.

Key Takeaway

Reflect on spiritual perception.

Themes

faith existence philosophy

Mood

thoughtful philosophical

Type

literary reflective

When to use this quote

personal belief
literary analysis
spiritual crisis

Key Concepts

theology dualism

Questions to Reflect On

Does absence feel like presence?
How does this affect faith?

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet

More by Margaret Atwood

“I'm fine," said Pilar, "for the moment. And the moment is the only time we can be fine in.”

Margaret Atwood

And yet it disturbs me to learn I have hurt someone unintentionally. I want all my hurts to be intentional.

Margaret Atwood

“Mary: Some call this "Eve's curse," but I think that is stupid because the real curse of Eve was having to put up with…

Margaret Atwood

“The birds were singing around me, but I reflected that the very birds were strangers to me, for I did not even know their…

Margaret Atwood

“Strange how we decorate pain. These ribbons, for instance, and the small hard teardrops of blood. Who are they for? Do we think the…

margaret atwood

I wanted to forget the past, but it refused to forget me; it waited for sleep, then cornered me.

Margaret Atwood

“Back at home they drew the curtains and read, with disapproval, with relish, with avidity and glee - even the ones who'd never thought…

Margaret Atwood

“It's my fault. I am forgetting too much.”

Margaret Atwood

All fiction is about people, unless it's about rabbits pretending to be people. It's all essentially characters in action, which means characters moving through…

Margaret Atwood

“Simon walks back to the house alone. The night is clear and warm, with a moon, almost full, enclosed in a nimbus of mist;…

Margaret Atwood

“There is indeed something delightful about being able to combine obedience and disobedience in the same act.”

Margaret Atwood

“Every time the women appear, Snowman is astonished all over again. They're every known colour from the deepest black to whitest white, they're various…

Margaret Atwood

Once you publish a book, it is out of your control. You cannot dictate how people read it.

Margaret Atwood

“The more difficult it was to love the particular man beside us, the more we believed in Love, abstract and total. We were waiting,…

Margaret Atwood

“She knows she's deceiving herself about that, but she prefers to deceive herself. She desperately needs to believe such pure joy is still possible.”

Margaret Atwood

Explore all 2,072 Margaret Atwood quotes

More Absence quotes

Distance sometimes endears friendship, and absence sweeteneth it.

James Howell

The work, the work, the work. This is what the business is all about. This is the fun, the glory, the pleasure. It's the…

Phil Dusenberry

Total depravity means the entire absence of holiness, not the highest intensity of sin. A totally depraved man is not as bad as he…

William Greenough Thayer Shedd

Local and state governments have outrun the federal government. The EPA has served notice that it will enact a rule requiring CO2 reductions by…

Al Gore

There, in the center of that silence was not eternity but the death of time and a loneliness so profound the word itself had…

Toni Morrison

Of all the bewildering things about a new country, the absence of human landmarks is one of the most depressing and disheartening.

Willa Cather

Young men have strong passions and tend to gratify them indiscriminately. Of the bodily desires, it is the sexual by which they are most…

Aristotle

It is suggested that in domestic violence at least the presence or absence of a firearm, or of any other type of weapon, is…

Colin Greenwood

The absence of God in most spheres of life is perceived to be normal, and even Christians feel it as normal - which is…

John Piper

Every person needs to take one day away. A day in which one consciously separates the past from the future. Jobs, family, employers, and…

Maya Angelou

“I was thinking how most people don't make you feel much of anything at all. Don't make you feel like time spent with them…

Jane Lotter

Cooperation isn't the absence of conflict but a means of managing conflict.

Deborah Tannen

Many are observing Ferguson and witnessing the anger, demonstrations, looting and vandalism and calling for quiet. But quiet isn't enough. The absence of noise…

Jesse Jackson

Will capitalist economies operate at full employment in the absence of routine intervention? Certainly not. Are deviations from full employment a social problem? Obviously.

Janet Yellen

We must begin by acknowledging that there is a complete absence of two things in Indian Society. One of these is equality. On the…

B. R. Ambedkar

Browse all 2,057 Absence quotes

You say, The sensed absence of God and the sensed presence…

About This Quote

Related quotes

More by Margaret Atwood

More Absence quotes