---
title: "2 Absent Quotes By Roland Barthes"
description: "2 Absent quotes by Roland Barthes. Plus more from Roland Barthes and more Absent sayings from other authors."
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9bc/roland-barthes-1062_absent_new-york-is-a-city-of-geometric-heights_574240.png"
---

> [New York... is a city of geometric heights, a petrified desert of grids and lattices, an inferno of greenish abstraction under a flat sky, a real Metropolis from which man is absent by his very accumulation.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/roland-barthes/new-york-is-a-city-of-geometric-heights-a-petrified-desert-of-grids/)

[Roland Barthes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/roland-barthes/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9bc/roland-barthes-1062_absent_new-york-is-a-city-of-geometric-heights_574240.png)

> [Isn’t desire always the same, whether the object is present or absent? Isn’t the object always absent? —This isn’t the same languor: there are two words: Pothos, desire for the absent being, and Himéros, the more burning desire for the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/roland-barthes/isn-t-desire-always-the-same-whether-the-object-is-present-or-absent/)

[Roland Barthes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/roland-barthes/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/847/roland-barthes-1062_absent_isn-t-desire-always-the-same-whether-the_2966658.jpg)

## Other authors on Absent

## More by Roland Barthes

> [“Werther identifies himself with the madman, with the footman. As a reader, I can identify myself with Werther. Historically, thousands of subjects have done…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/roland-barthes/werther-identifies-himself-with-the-madman-with-the-footman-as-a/)

[Roland Barthes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/roland-barthes/)

> [The Text is not a definitive object.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/roland-barthes/the-text-is-not-a-definitive-object/)

[Roland Barthes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/roland-barthes/)

> [“Valéry used to speak of those people who die in an accident because they are unwilling to let go of their umbrellas; how many…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/roland-barthes/val-ry-used-to-speak-of-those-people-who-die-in-an-accident-because/)

[Roland Barthes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/roland-barthes/)

> [Today there is no symbolic compensation for old age, no recognition of a specific value: wisdom, perceptiveness, experience, vision.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/roland-barthes/today-there-is-no-symbolic-compensation-for-old-age-no-recognition-of/)

[Roland Barthes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/roland-barthes/)

> [The unary Photograph has every reason to be banal, 'unity' of composition being the first rule of vulgar (and notably, of academic) rhetoric: 'The…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/roland-barthes/the-unary-photograph-has-every-reason-to-be-banal-unity-of/)

[Roland Barthes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/roland-barthes/)

> [“A creative writer is one for whom writing is a problem.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/roland-barthes/a-creative-writer-is-one-for-whom-writing-is-a-problem/)

[Roland Barthes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/roland-barthes/)

> [“Man does not exist prior to language, either as a species or as an individual. We never encounter a state where man is separated…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/roland-barthes/man-does-not-exist-prior-to-language-either-as-a-species-or-as-an/)

[Roland Barthes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/roland-barthes/)

> [“It is said that Time soothes mourning – No, Time makes nothing happen; it merely makes the emotivity of mourning pass.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/roland-barthes/it-is-said-that-time-soothes-mourning-no-time-makes-nothing-happen-it/)

[Roland Barthes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/roland-barthes/)

> [“So long as I perceive the world as hostile, I remain linked to it: \*I am not crazy\*. But sometimes, once my bad temper…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/roland-barthes/so-long-as-i-perceive-the-world-as-hostile-i-remain-linked-to-it-i-am/)

[Roland Barthes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/roland-barthes/)

> [I think that cars today are almost the exact equivalent of the great Gothic cathedrals: I mean the supreme creation of an era, conceived…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/roland-barthes/i-think-that-cars-today-are-almost-the-exact-equivalent-of-the-great/)

[Roland Barthes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/roland-barthes/)

> [“(Sartre) (The world is full without me, as in Nausea; the world plays at living behind a glass partition; the world is in an…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/roland-barthes/sartre-the-world-is-full-without-me-as-in-nausea-the-world-plays-at/)

[Roland Barthes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/roland-barthes/)

> [“Like love, mourning affects the world—and the worldly—with unreality, with importunity. I resist the world, I suffer from what it demands of me, from…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/roland-barthes/like-love-mourning-affects-the-world-and-the-worldly-with-unreality/)

[Roland Barthes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/roland-barthes/)

> [Painting can feign reality without having seen it.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/roland-barthes/painting-can-feign-reality-without-having-seen-it/)

[Roland Barthes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/roland-barthes/)

> [“There is an age at which we teach what we know. Then comes another age at which we teach what we do not know;…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/roland-barthes/there-is-an-age-at-which-we-teach-what-we-know-then-comes-another-age/)

[Roland Barthes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/roland-barthes/)

> [As a jealous man, I suffer four times over: because I am jealous, because I blame myself for being so, because I fear that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/roland-barthes/as-a-jealous-man-i-suffer-four-times-over-because-i-am-jealous/)

[Roland Barthes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/roland-barthes/)

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