Lord Chesterfield’s Advice to His Son, On Men and Manners: or, A New System of Education, Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, 1815

I would rather be in company with a dead man, than with an absent one: for if the dead man affords me no pleasure, at least he shews me no contempt; whereas the absent man very plainly, though silently, tells me that he does not think me worth his attention.