Roger DeBussy-Rabutin

Absence is to love what wind is to a fire; it puts out the little, it kindles the great.

Source: Histoire amoureuse des Gaules, Roger de Rabutin, Comte de Bussy, 1665

A genuine and long-established maxim of Bussy-Rabutin — 'L'absence est à l'amour ce qu'est au feu le vent: il éteint le petit, il allume le grand' — standardly cited to Histoire amoureuse des Gaules (1665). One housekeeping note for the corpus: the author name should be 'Roger de Bussy-Rabutin' or, more properly, 'Roger de Rabutin, Comte de Bussy'; the submitted 'Roger DeBussy-Rabutin' garbles the particle and should be corrected. | Suggested reattribution: Roger de Rabutin, Comte de Bussy (Bussy-Rabutin)