Absence:Love :: Wind:Fire

This weekend I watched the season finale of "The City" on tivo. And yes, I do watch "The City" since I'm a fan of "The Hills" and liked Whitney enough to watch her show. I find both shows to be worthy of tivoing since it gives me something to put on in the background while I do stuff around the house. I should say though, that if I'm near the remote during certain parts, like the conversations between Allie and Adam, I forward through it since they tend to go something like this...

Allie: I'm tired of hearing how you're always around girls. Why do you put yourself in these situations.
Adam: I don't know, you know me, I wouldn't do anything. I love you honey...blah, blah.

Anyways, during the finale there was a nice scene between Whitney and Diane Von Furstenberg where DVF gives Whitney some words of wisdom as Whitney thinks about her breakup with Jay. This is from memory so it may not be exact, but you'll get the point:

Diane Von Furstenberg: My mother told me that absence is like wind. If it's a small fire, the wind will blow it out. If it's a large fire the wind will make it spread and grow.

She then goes on to say that it's important to love yourself first since you'll always be with yourself.

I liked that analogy enough to remember it and to Google its origin. There are two similar quotes from two French authors that hit on this point. One is from Roger de Bussy-Rabutin who said "Absense is to love as wind is to fire; it extinguishes the small and kindles the great." The other is by Francois de La Rochefoucauld who said "Absence diminishes small loves and increases great ones, as the wind blows out the candle and blows up the bonfire."

However you say it, it's true.