“Being is both presence and absence. God had to conceal His presence in order to bring the world into being.”

— Abraham Joshua Heschel

Source: Who Is Man? (1965), Ch. 5
Context: Being is both presence and absence. God had to conceal His presence in order to bring the world into being. He had to make His absence possible in order to make room for the world's presence. Coming into being brought along denial and defiance, absence, oblivion and resistance.

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Abraham Joshua Heschel 130

Polish-American Conservative Judaism Rabbi 1907–1972

Glen Duncan book I, Lucifer

Source: I, Lucifer

“This peace is not the absence of anything. Real peace is the presence of something beautiful. Both peace and the thirst for it have been in the heart of every human being in every century and every civilization.”

Prem Rawat (1957) controversial spiritual leader

Address to faculty, students and guests at Harvard University's Sanders Theater (August 2004)
2000s

“Many people of various beliefs and faiths have written about the practice of the presence of God, and all speak of the happiness they receive from being in His presence.”

Hazrat Inayat Khan (1882–1927) Indian Sufi

Vol. I, The Way of Illumination, Section I - The Way of Illumination, Part III : The Sufi.
The Spiritual Message of Hazrat Inayat Khan
Context: Many people of various beliefs and faiths have written about the practice of the presence of God, and all speak of the happiness they receive from being in His presence. So it is no wonder that the Sufi also, should he wish to speak of it, should testify to similar happiness. He does not claim to a greater happiness than his fellow men because he is a human being and subject to all the shortcomings of mankind. But at the same time others can decide about his happiness better even than his words can tell it. The happiness which is experienced in God has no equal in anything in the world, however precious it may be, and everyone who experiences it will realize the same.

“Peace is not merely the absence of war but the presence of justice, of law, of order —in short, of government.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

Source: On Peace

“Absence, the highest form of presence.”

James Joyce (1882–1941) Irish novelist and poet

“Testing shows the presence, not the absence of bugs”

Edsger W. Dijkstra (1930–2002) Dutch computer scientist

Dijkstra (1969) J.N. Buxton and B. Randell, eds, Software Engineering Techniques, April 1970, p. 16. Report on a conference sponsored by the NATO Science Committee, Rome, Italy, 27–31 October 1969. http://homepages.cs.ncl.ac.uk/brian.randell/NATO/nato1969.PDF Possibly the earliest documented use of the famous quote.
1960s

“Thus today in the presence of all awakened Ones
I invite every living being to this festival
Giving both immediate and lasting joy.
May the gods and all others rejoice.”

Šantidéva (685–763) 8th-century Indian Buddhist monk and scholar

Bodhicaryavatara

“We are living in a moment in which our physicality, our being there is replaced by our virtual images and our voice, even this impalpable. Our being flesh and blood has to deal with the absence that is the true presence in these times”

Salvatore Garau (1953) Italian artist

referring to his 'I Am', The invisible sculpture, Garau make in 2021 during Covid19 era
Quote of Garau, in https://it.finance.yahoo.com/notizie/venduta-scultura-che-non-esiste-110928142.html 'Venduta scultura che non esiste: Salvatore Garau e l’immateriale' 2021, Yahoo Finance, May 2021

“What was reprehensible in being fearful in the presence of the unknown?”

Michael Bishop (1945) American writer

Source: A Funeral for the Eyes of Fire (1975), Chapter 1, “Planetfall: The Hawks of Conscience” (p. 33)

“True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

In a 1955 response to an accusation that he was "disturbing the peace" by his activism during the Montgomery Bus Boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, as quoted in Let the Trumpet Sound : A Life of Martin Luther King, Jr (1982) by Stephen B. Oates
1950s

“Being is both presence and absence. God had to conceal His presence in order to bring the world into being.”

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Abraham Joshua Heschel 130

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