Distance

length of straight line that connects two points in a measurable space or in an observable physical space

Distance usually refers to numerical measures of how far apart or close together objects are, based on a standard physical length, or estimations based on other criteria (e.g. "two counties over"). In mathematics, a distance function or metric is a way of describing what it means for elements of some space to be "close to" or "far away from" each other, according to a specific set of rules. In a more general sense it can refer to differing ranges of similarity, diversity, complexity or conceptual dimensionality, beyond those distinguished by any simple linear or numerical measures.

'Tis distance lends enchantment to the view,
And robes the mountain in its azure hue. ~ Thomas Campbell

Quotes

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I've left the Past in God's keeping,—the Future
His mercy shall clear;
And what looks dark in the distance may brighten as I draw near. ~ Mary Gardiner Brainard
 
From a distance there is harmony
And it echoes through the land
And it's the hope of hopes, it's the love of loves
It's the heart of every man…
 
Sweetest melodies.
Are those that are by distance made more sweet. ~ William Wordsworth
  • DISTANCE, n. The only thing that the rich are willing for the poor to call theirs, and keep.
    • Ambrose Bierce, The Cynic's Dictionary (1906); republished as The Devil's Dictionary (1911).
  • Australia's distance from Europe was probably only tolerable because it had strategic commodities which England, threatened by changing European alliances, might some day be unable to produce in the northern hemisphere. Flax was the first conqueror — a hollow conqueror — of the distance which so often shaped Australia's destiny.
    • Geoffrey Blainey, The Tyranny of Distance: How Distance Shaped Australia's History (1966)
  • I see not a step before me as I tread on another year;
    But I've left the Past in God's keeping,—the Future
    His mercy shall clear
    ;
    And what looks dark in the distance may brighten as I draw near.
    • Mary Gardiner Brainard, Not Knowing, published in The Congregationalist (March 1869), and set to music as a hymn by Philip Paul Bliss in the 1870s, as quoted in Glimpses of Christian History Presents More Stories: Blessed Bliss (2007) by Thomas Corts.
  • 'T is distance lends enchantment to the view,
    And robes the mountain in its azure hue.
  • In notes by distance made more sweet.
  • As distant prospects please us, but when near
    We find but desert rocks and fleeting air.
  • From a distance we are instruments
    Marching in a common band

    Playing songs of hope, playing songs of peace
    They're the songs of every man.
  • From a distance you look like my friend
    Even though we are at war
    From a distance I just cannot comprehend
    What all this war is for.
  • From a distance there is harmony
    And it echoes through the land
    And it's the hope of hopes, it's the love of loves
    It's the heart of every man
    (Every man).

    It's the hope of hopes, it's the love of loves
    This is the song of every man.

  • Love is like a landscape which doth stand
    Smooth at a distance, rough at hand.
    • Robert Hegge, On Love, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
  • Distance sometimes endears friendship, and absence sweeteneth it.
  • Life is like a landscape. You live in the midst of it but can describe it only from the vantage point of distance.
    • Charles Lindbergh, as quoted in Lindbergh: Flight's Enigmatic Hero (2002) by Von Hardesty.
  • By this time, like one who had set out on his way by night, and travelled through a region of smooth or idle dreams, our history now arrives on the confines, where daylight and truth meet us with a clear dawn, representing to our view, though at a far distance, true colours and shapes.
  • Our senses enable us to perceive only a minute portion of the outside world. Our hearing extends to a small distance. Our sight is impeded by intervening bodies and shadows. To know each other we must reach beyond the sphere of our sense perceptions. We must transmit our intelligence, travel, transport the materials and transfer the energies necessary for our existence. Following this thought we now realize, forcibly enough to dispense with argument, that of all other conquests of man, without exception, that which is most desirable, which would be most helpful in the establishment of universal peaceful relations is — the complete ANNIHILATION OF DISTANCE.
  • When wireless is perfectly applied the whole earth will be converted into a huge brain, which in fact it is, all things being particles of a real and rhythmic whole. We shall be able to communicate with one another instantly, irrespective of distance. Not only this, but through television and telephony we shall see and hear one another as perfectly as though we were face to face, despite intervening distances of thousands of miles; and the instruments through which we shall be able to do his will be amazingly simple compared with our present telephone. A man will be able to carry one in his vest pocket.
    • Nikola Tesla "When Woman is Boss", Colliers, January 30, 1926
  • Sweetest melodies.
    Are those that are by distance made more sweet.
  • Yon foaming flood seems motionless as ice;
    Its dizzy turbulence eludes the eye,
    Frozen by distance.
  • We're charm'd with distant views of happiness,
    But near approaches make the prospect less.
    • Thomas Yalden, Against Enjoyment, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
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