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The heart may think it knows better: the senses know that absence blots people out. We have really no absent friends.

— Elizabeth Bowen The Death of the Heart (1939)

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More quotes by Elizabeth Bowen

It is thought that women inspire by their beauty; more often they do so by their longings.

A Time in Rome (1960)

Intimacies between women go backwards, beginning in revelations and ending up in small talk without loss of esteem.

The Death of the Heart (1939)

Experience isn't interesting until it begins to repeat itself — in fact, till it does that, it hardly is experience.

The Death of the Heart (1939)

There is no end to the violations committed by children on children, quietly talking alone.

The House in Paris (1935)

Cicero, in invoking the law of heaven, invoked what was by nature of heaven: law — inviolable principle, better than the vacillating gods.

A Time in Rome (1960)

All Elizabeth Bowen quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Elizabeth Bowen (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.