Quotes About Distance

At the end of my first year at university, I was at home for three months, visibly and unrepentantly bored. Those of the same age today will find it hard to imagine the laboriousness of communication back then. Most of my friends were far-flung, and—by some unexpressed but clear parental mandate—use of the telephone was discouraged. A letter, and then a letter in reply. It was all slow-paced, and lonely.

I don't know you. That's the problem.

Iain didn't go back to sleep for a long while. He continued to think about all the logical reasons he would never allow himself to be turned into a lovesick weakling like Patrick, and when he finally fell asleep, he had convinced himself that he would distance his heart from his mind. He dreamed about her.

They're allies, Jamie. She immediately let go of him, straightened her back, and refolded her hands in her lap. I guessed as much, she whispered. It was a lie, made blacker still when she added, Even from this distance I can see them smiling. An eagle couldn't see their faces from this distance, he answered dryly. We English have perfect eyesight.

How astounding, Andras thought, that a ship that size could shrink to the size of a house, and then to the size of a car; the size of a desk, a book, a shoe, a walnut, a grain of rice, a grain of sand. How astounding that the largest thing he'd ever seen was still no match for the diminishing effect of distance. It made him aware of his own smallness in the world, his insignificance in the face of what might come, and for a moment his chest felt light with panic.

How astounding that the largest thing he'd ever seen was still no match for the diminishing effect of distance. It made him aware of his own smallness in the world, his insignificance in the face of what might come, and for a moment his chest felt light with panic.

Their old life seemed far away and remote to him now, like a dream he could not quite remember. The bright green grass, the roses, the house on the wide street not far from the sea -- that was another time, a different year.

Breaking a chain letter from Juneau, Alaska.

Last night I had a dream that I was about halfway up a sheer cliff, endlessly high. Up ahead of me was, it seemed, everyone I'd ever known—the guys at the shop, my family, Gwen, Eric, D—and they were pulling ahead, climbing fast, leaving me behind. I tried to call out but found I had no voice, that my words slurred and died in my mouth, that I could not be heard. I awoke with a terrified lurch, unable to scream. I have this dream all the time.

When I looked at you from a distance you would smile invitingly, but when I approached, the smile would change into mist and obstruct my view. ... It may be that someone else's tenderness can be experienced only as pain.

I wanted to get close to you, and at the same time to stay away from you. I wanted to know you, and at the same time I resisted that knowing. I wanted to look at you and at the same time felt ashamed to look. My state of suspension was such that the crevice between us grew deeper and deeper, and holding the broken glass together with my two hands, I barely preserved its form.

His words were absorbed by the sand and blown by the wind, and there was no way of knowing how far they reached.

You had not abandoned me, but neither did you stay close to me.

The icy lump of silence that lay between us was apparently too deeply frozen to melt under just any pretext. The questions I had prepared as I walked along—possible opportunities for conversation—were so many matches held against an iceberg.

I wanted to get close to you, and at the same time to stay away from you. I wanted to know you, and at the same time I resisted that knowing. I wanted to look at you and at the same time felt ashamed to look. My state of suspension was such that the crevice between us grew deeper and deeper...

Mi verdadero miedo consiste en que jamás podré poseerte. Que en el mejor de los casos me veré limitado, como un perro inconscientemente fiel, a besar a tu mano que, distraídamente, habrás dejado a mi alcance, lo cual no será, por mi parte, una señal de amor, sino un signo de la desesperación del animal eternamente condenado al mutismo y a la distancia. Kafka a Felice Bauer (p.117)

Manchmal, sagte sie, gehen zwei Menschen aneinander vorbei, sehen sich kurz in die Augen, und alles, was bleibt, ist ein Wunsch. Ein Traum von dem, was hätte geschehen können. Und dann gehen sie mit jedem Schritt weiter voneinander fort und von all ihren Träumen.

From there, to the South-West, I saw the Ngong Hills. The noble wave of the mountain rose above the surrounding flat land, all air-blue. But it was so far away that the four peaks looked trifling, hardly distinguishable, and different from the way they looked from the farm. The outline of the mountain was slowly smoothed and levelled out by the hand of distance.

Red started preparing a short speech for Sophie about the importance of keeping a safe physical distance between herself and her guest. He was just working out a brilliant but poignant closing statement when Sophie walked into the room. Red's welcoming smile froze,fell, and shattered. Bloody hell! Ye can't wear that!

There's no scandal involved," she said airily. "I have no connection with you whatsoever. I have nothing to do with you. You are a thimble filled with water next to my ocean. You are a grain of sand to my beach. You are a tiny star in the sky. You're nothing to me.

You could only ever see a thing when you were standing outside of it.

It was odd how you could love something so much, but forget about it when it wasn't right under your nose.

I could only think of you as being very distant and beautiful and calm. A lighthouse in clean waters.

Whenever there is love the woman blossoms. Without love, the woman shrinks. The men who love power never fall in love. Even if they fall in love they keep themselves at a distance.