Never part without loving words to think of during your absence. It may be that you will not meet again in this life.

The saying urges deliberate tenderness at moments of parting. Because separation is uncertain in duration—and may become permanent through death—one should leave others with words that can sustain them in absence: reassurance, gratitude, forgiveness, or affection. The emphasis is not on sentimentality but on moral foresight: partings are ethically charged because they may be final, and what is left unsaid cannot be recovered. Attributed to Jean Paul (Johann Paul Friedrich Richter), a writer attentive to emotional life and the fragility of human ties, the line reflects a Romantic-era sensibility that treats everyday encounters as spiritually consequential.