Keyed up by that, Mr Harrer longed to be picked for a Himalayan expedition.

ECONOMIST: Heinrich Harrer

To stay connected, the newlyweds wrote each other as often as they could -- open, affectionate letters describing how much they missed each other and longed to be together.

CNN: Mystery surrounds missing World War II love letters

Yet part of him had longed to be there.

ECONOMIST: Eric Hobsbawm, historian, died on October 1st, aged 95

In one of her last responses, published in the current issue of Latina, a woman from Texas who described herself as being "white and Puerto Rican" longed to be proud of her heritage.

CNN: Latina 'Dear Abby' brought wit, wisdom, light

Born, as we are, out of a revolution by those who longed to be free, we welcome the fact that history is on the move in the Middle East and North Africa, and that young people are leading the way.

WHITEHOUSE: President Obama��s Speech on Libya

The exuberantly composed and furiously performed scenes play out, in bars and streets and beds and bathrooms, at the perilously measured pace of a tightrope walker dancing over the abyss, and the three actors lurch and shamble with the vestigial grace of the athletes these commuters once longed to be.

NEWYORKER: Husbands

At first, I didn't like Joey when I first started watching, but I eventually fell in love with her, and I understood what Dawson felt for her, and even longed for them to be together (isn't that the point?).

BBC: Dawson's Creek

They let me imagine how it felt to be longed for, and that was a knowledge sadly lacking in my real life.

WSJ: Roger Ebert on Elizabeth Taylor

But I found that talking about how my sabbatical would be centred on the history of places I longed to visit, and how I planned to volunteer my skills as a lawyer where I could, helped to keep the conversation positive.

BBC: How I quit my job to travel: The corporate lawyer