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89393a8 Let me tell you this: if you meet a loner, no matter what they tell you, it's not because they enjoy solitude. It's because they have tried to blend into the world before, and people continue to disappoint them. loneliness loner solitude Jodi Picoult
fec94b8 care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself. defiance empowerment independence individuality self-assurance self-awareness self-containment self-determination self-esteem self-reliance self-respect self-sufficiency self-trust solitude Charlotte Brontë
f1b9fba being alone never felt right. sometimes it felt good, but it never felt right. solitude Charles Bukowski
13db51f I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time. To be in company, even with the best, is soon wearisome and dissipating. I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude. company privacy solitude Henry David Thoreau
7959b3b "In order to understand the world, one has to turn away from it on occasion." [ ]" retreat solitude Albert Camus
941a37a I need to be alone. I need to ponder my shame and my despair in seclusion; I need the sunshine and the paving stones of the streets without companions, without conversation, face to face with myself, with only the music of my heart for company. silence solitude Henry Miller
f8596bc From that time on, the world was hers for the reading. She would never be lonely again, never miss the lack of intimate friends. Books became her friends and there was one for every mood. There was poetry for quiet companionship. There was adventure when she tired of quiet hours. There would be love stories when she came into adolescence and when she wanted to feel a closeness to someone she could read a biography. On that day when she first knew she could read, she made a vow to read one book a day as long as she lived. literature lonliness reading solitude Betty Smith
ae26b5f The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself. independence individuality inspirational self-assurance self-awareness self-containment self-determination self-esteem self-reliance self-respect self-sufficiency self-trust solitude ataraxy Michel de Montaigne
edb2164 How much better is silence; the coffee cup, the table. How much better to sit by myself like the solitary sea-bird that opens its wings on the stake. Let me sit here for ever with bare things, this coffee cup, this knife, this fork, things in themselves, myself being myself. silence solitude Virginia Woolf
766c0cc For now she need not think of anybody. She could be herself, by herself. And that was what now she often felt the need of - to think; well not even to think. To be silent; to be alone. All the being and the doing, expansive, glittering, vocal, evaporated; and one shrunk, with a sense of solemnity, to being oneself, a wedge-shaped core of darkness, something invisible to others... and this self having shed its attachments was free for the strangest adventures. solitude Virginia Woolf
5c582c8 We live, in fact, in a world starved for solitude, silence, and private: and therefore starved for meditation and true friendship. friendship privacy solitude C.S. Lewis
b1295aa Solitude has soft, silky hands, but with strong fingers it grasps the heart and makes it ache with sorrow. solitude sorrow Kahlil Gibran
1418a39 If you meet a loner, no matter what they tell you, it's not because they enjoy solitude. It's because they have tried to blend into the world before, and people continue to disappoint them. reality solitude Jodi Picoult
ef6f5ee Find meaning. Distinguish melancholy from sadness. Go out for a walk. It doesn't have to be a romantic walk in the park, spring at its most spectacular moment, flowers and smells and outstanding poetical imagery smoothly transferring you into another world. It doesn't have to be a walk during which you'll have multiple life epiphanies and discover meanings no other brain ever managed to encounter. Do not be afraid of spending quality time by yourself. Find meaning or don't find meaning but 'steal' some time and give it freely and exclusively to your own self. Opt for privacy and solitude. That doesn't make you antisocial or cause you to reject the rest of the world. But you need to breathe. And you need to be. meaning privacy sadness solitude Albert Camus
7564162 To be left alone is the most precious thing one can ask of the modern world. privacy solitude Anthony Burgess
7abff26 Wherever they might be they always remember that the past was a lie, that memory has no return, that every spring gone by could never be recovered, and that the wildest and most tenacious love was an ephemeral truth in the end. garcia hundred marquez of one solitude years Gabriel García Márquez
9a5aa97 "I'll read my books and I'll drink coffee and I'll listen to music, and I'll bolt the door." ( introvert solitude J.D. Salinger
a671aa6 I prefer to be left alone with my books. jane-grey solitude Alison Weir
d493f09 Betrayed and wronged in everything, I'll flee this bitter world where vice is king, And seek some spot unpeopled and apart Where I'll be free to have an honest heart. misanthropy solitude Molière
9cb9b2f I am the Cat who walks by himself, and all places are alike to me. pride self-containment solitude Rudyard Kipling
8f0dc3b I hate solitude, but I'm afraid of intimacy. The substance of my life is a private conversation with myself which to turn into a dialogue would be equivalent to self-destruction. The company which I need is the company which a pub or a cafe will provide. I have never wanted a communion of souls. It's already hard enough to tell the truth to oneself. solitude Iris Murdoch
de758dd So, now I shall talk every night. To myself. To the moon. I shall walk, as I did tonight, jealous of my loneliness, in the blue-silver of the cold moon, shining brilliantly on the drifts of fresh-fallen snow, with the myriad sparkles. I talk to myself and look at the dark trees, blessedly neutral. So much easier than facing people, than having to look happy, invulnerable, clever. With masks down, I walk, talking to the moon, to the neutral impersonal force that does not hear, but merely accepts my being. And does not smite me down. people solitude Sylvia Plath
422e81a Believe me, I know what it's like to feel all alone...the worst kind of loneliness in the world is the isolation that comes from being misunderstood, It can make people lose their grasp on reality. misunderstood solitude Dan Brown
64aebf5 I want someone to sit beside after the day's pursuit and all its anguish, after its listening, and its waitings, and its suspicions. After quarrelling and reconciliation I need privacy - to be alone with you, to set this hubbub in order. For I am as neat as a cat in my habits. companionship friendship peace privacy quietness solitude Virginia Woolf
2df2a94 But many of us seek community solely to escape the fear of being alone. Knowing how to be solitary is central to the art of loving. When we can be alone, we can be with others without using them as a means of escape. community escape fear loneliness love relationship solitude Bell Hooks
2430d1b For those who know the value of and exquisite taste of solitary freedom (for one is only free when alone), the act of leaving is the bravest and most beautiful of all. bravery freedom inspirational loneliness solitude Isabelle Eberhardt
60061c4 Lonely was much better than alone. solitude Toni Morrison
bdb1023 My Solitude is my Treasure, the best thing I have. I hesitate to go out. If you opened the little gate, I would not hop away--but oh how I sing in my gold cage. peace solitude A.S. Byatt
3d291df "I wondered why it was that places are so much lovelier when one is alone. How commonplace and stupid it would be if I had a friend now, sitting beside me, someone I had known at school, who would say: "By-the-way, I saw old Hilda the other day. You remember her, the one who was so good at tennis. She's married, with two children." And the bluebells beside us unnoticed, and the pigeons overhead unheard. I did not want anyone with me. Not even Maxim. If Maxim had been there I should not be lying as I was now, chewing a piece of grass, my eyes shut. I should have been watching him, watching his eyes, his expression. Wondering if he liked it, if he was bored. Wondering what he was thinking. Now I could relax, none of these things mattered. Maxim was in London. How lovely it was to be alone again." solitude Daphne du Maurier
1d153d1 Yes, in my life, since we must call it so, there were three things, the inability to speak, the inability to be silent, and solitude, that's what I've had to make the best of. solitude speech Samuel Beckett
a3a19f6 The secret of a good old age is simply an honorable pact with solitude. old-age solitude Gabriel García Márquez
aa0cdd6 All the being and the doing, expansive, glittering, vocal, evaporated; and one shrunk, with a sense of solemnity, to being oneself, a wedge-shaped core of darkness, something invisible to others. seclusion silence solitude Virginia Woolf
ac389d2 Given enough time, you could convince yourself that loneliness was something better, that it was solitude, the ideal condition for reflection, even a kind of freedom. Once you were thus convinced, you were foolish to open the door and let anyone in, not all the way in. You risked the hard-won equilibrium, that tranquility that you called peace loneliness peace reflection solitude tranquility Dean Koontz
6e3d395 I like being on my own better than I like anything else, but I can't give up love. Maybe it's the tension between longing and aloneness that I need. My own funicular railway, holding in balance the two things most likely to destroy me. longing love solitude Jeanette Winterson
c0b802b People left him alone. And that was all he wanted. solitude want Patrick Süskind
7039cd0 With one long breath, caught and held in his chest, he fought his sadness over his solitary life. Don't cry, you idiot! Live or die, but don't poison everything... life solitude Saul Bellow
9717b42 In all her intercourse with society, however, there was nothing that made her feel as if she belonged to it... She stood apart from mortal interests, yet close beside them, like a ghost that revisits the familiar fireside, and can no longer make itself seen or felt. society solitude Nathaniel Hawthorne
2cee4a6 From that time on, the world was hers for the reading. She would never be lonely again, never miss the lack of intimate friends. Books became her friends and there was one for every mood. literature lonliness reading solitude words Betty Smith
ae36d1e This was not my moment to be seeking romance and (as day follows night) to further complicate my already knotty life. This was my moment to look for the kind of healing and peace that can only come from solitude. solitude Elizabeth Gilbert
9ee536b Jamie enjoyed solitude, but loneliness was a constant ache. loneliness solitude Sidney Sheldon
5913e2c I don't want anyone to look to me, not for protection, not for happiness, not for love, not for anything. love protection responsibility self-sufficiency solitude P.D. James
86fb636 But for pain words are lacking. There should be cries, cracks, fissures, whiteness passing over chintz covers, interference with the sense of time, of space; the sense also of extreme fixity in passing objects; and sounds very remote and then very close; flesh being gashed and blood spurting, a joint suddenly twisted - beneath all of which appears something very important, yet remote, to be just held in solitude. solitude Virginia Woolf
bee8203 What's agitating about solitude is the inner voice telling you that you should be mated to somebody, that solitude is a mistake. The inner voice doesn't care about who you find. It just keeps pestering you, tormenting you--if you happen to be me--with homecoming queens first, then girls next door, and finally anybody who might be pleased to see you now and then at the dinner table and in bed on occasion. You look up from reading the newspaper and realize that no one loves you, and no one burns for you. relationships settling solitude Charles Baxter
a309790 Not that she objected to solitude. Quite the contrary. She had books, thank Heaven, quantities of books. All sorts of books. heaven reading solitude Jean Rhys
0f1111a Can I be blamed for wanting a real body, to put my arms around? Without it I too am disembodied. I can listen to my own heartbeat against the bedsprings...but there's something dead about it, something deserted. arms body dead desire fantasy lack love need sex solitude Margaret Atwood
4bf203c . . . clumsiness is often mated with a love of solitude. isolation loneliness personality solitude Virginia Woolf
5a013c9 I'd never chosen to be alone, but that was the way things had turned out, and I'd grown used to it. solitude Sebastian Faulks
984b5fd The lover`s discourse was of an extreme solitude. The solitude was extreme because it wasn`t physical. It was extreme because you felt it while in the company of the person you loved. It was extreme because it was in your head, the most solitary of places. solitude Jeffrey Eugenides
9b689af Sovereignty, loyalty, and solitude. solitude sovereignty Georges Bataille
c2b4b36 Have you ever been lonely? No, neither have I. Solitary, yes. Alone, certainly. But lonely means minding about being on your own. I've never minded about it. solitude Sebastian Faulks
133428b Now I no longer wish to be loved, beautiful, happy or successful. I want one thing and one thing only - to be left alone. solitude Jean Rhys
5ff4008 Personally, I'd rather grow old alone than in the company of anyone I've met so far. I don't experience myself as lonely, incomplete, or unfulfilled, but I don't talk about that much. It seems to piss people off--especially men. (Kinsey Millhone) independent-women men-and-women other-people single-women solitude the-solitary-life Sue Grafton
f2d56d2 Loneliness becomes a lover, solitude a darling sin. james-bond loneliness solitude the-spy-who-loved-me Ian Fleming
50d8024 She had dreamed some brilliant dreams during the past winter and now they lay in the dust around her. In her present mood of self-disgust, she could not immediately begin dreaming again. And she discovered that, while solitude with dreams is glorious, solitude without them has few charms. l-m-montgomery solitude L.M. Montgomery
6503248 After all this kind of fanfare, and even more, I came to a point where I needed solitude and to just stop the machine of 'thinking' and 'enjoying' what they call 'living,' I just wanted to lie in the grass and look at the clouds... living living-life solitude Jack Kerouac
cb0603d And suddenly solitude fell across his heart like a dusty reflection. He closed his eyes. The dark doors within him opened and he entered. The next performance in the theater of Grenouille's soul was beginning. performance reflection solitude soul Patrick Süskind
619569f We're all mad, the whole damned race. We're wrapped in illusions, delusions, confusions about the penetrability of partitions, we're all mad and in solitary confinement. delusions humanity illusions madness solitude William Golding
7108f11 Society is commonly too cheap. We meet at very short intervals, not having had time to acquire any new value for each other.We meet at meals three times a day, and give each other a new taste of that musty old cheese that we are. We have had to agree on a certain set of rules, called etiquette and politeness, to make this frequent meeting tolerable and that we need not come to open war. We meet at the post office, and at the sociable, and at the fireside every night; we live thick and are in each other's way, and stumble over one another, and I think that we thus lose some respect for one another. introversion introvert philosophy social solitude thoreau walden Henry David Thoreau
42e37cf He walked on in silence, the solitary sound of his footsteps echoing in his head, as in a deserted street, at dawn. His solitude was so complete, beneath a lovely sky as mellow and serene as a good conscience, amid that busy throng, that he was amazed at his own existence; he must be somebody else's nightmare, and whoever it was would certainly awaken soon. philosophy solitude Jean-Paul Sartre
627fa6b Solitude is used to teach us how to live with other people. Rage is used to show us the infinite value of peace. Boredom is used to underline the importance of adventure & spontaneity. Silence is used to teach us to use words responsibly. Tiredness is used so that we can understand the value of waking up. Illness is used to underline the blessing of good health. Fire is used to teach us about water. Earth is used so that we can understand the value of air. Death is used to show us the importance of life. inspiration life peace solitude Paulo Coelho
baaba2e We affect one another quite enough merely by existing. Whenever the stars cross, or is it comets? fragments pass briefly from one orbit to another. On rare occasions there is total collision, but most often the two simply continue without incident, neither losing more than a particle to the other, in passing. lonliness relationships solitude Gore Vidal
d51e2cd He liked to read with the silence and the golden color of the whiskey as his companions. He liked food, people, talk, but reading was an inexhaustible pleasure. What the joys of music were to others, words on a page were to him. reading solitude spiritual-needs James Salter
95cf2a3 The devil has made it his business to monopolize on three elements: noise, hurry, crowds. He will not allow quietness. quiet solitude Elisabeth Elliot
9e797bf What other knowledge will my solitude and muteness bring? What other worlds? solitude Kathy Acker
730fedf When you cease to fear your solitude, a new creativity awakens in you. Your forgotten or neglected wealth begins to reveal itself. You come home to yourself and learn to rest within. Thoughts are our inner senses. Infused with silence and solitude, they bring out the mystery of inner landscape. self-awareness solitude thoughts John O'Donohue
d3d9ea6 It is the wilderness in the mind, the desert wastes in the heart through which one wanders lost and a stranger. When one is a stranger to oneself then one is estranged from others too. If one is out of touch with oneself, then one cannot touch others. inner-peace quote solitude Anne Morrow Lindbergh
1f6fab9 Friendship, according to Proust, is the negation of that irremediable solitude to which every human being is condemned. friendship solitude Samuel Beckett
e4a3501 He had escaped the abhorrent taint! He was truly completely alone! He was the only human being in the world! solitude Patrick Süskind
0d0721a No one can be happy in eternal solitude. no-one solitude Anne Brontë
44d3143 Tu as tout a apprendre, tout ce qui ne s'apprend pas: la solitude, l'indifference, la patience, le silence. Tu dois te deshabituer de tout: d'aller a la rencontre de ceux que si longtemps tu as cotoyes, de prendre tes repas, tes cafes a la place que chaque jour d'autres ont retenue pour toi, ont parfois defendue pour toi, de trainer dans la complicite fade des amities qui n'en finissent pas de se survivre, dans la rancoeur opportuniste et lache des liaisons qui s'effilochent. learning solitude Georges Perec
7b48bc5 Ursula craved solitude but she hated loneliness hate life loneliness lonely solitude Kate Atkinson
6c1bc17 He had been for many years, a quiet silent man, associating but little with other men, and used to companionship with his own thoughts. He had never known before the strength of the want in his heart for the frequent recognition of a nod, a look, a word; or the immense amount of relief that had been poured into it by drops through such small means. loneliness sadness solitude Charles Dickens
f6e18a4 The more she thought about it, the more Madeleine understood that extreme solitude didn't just describe the way she was feeling about Leonard. It explained how she'd always felt when she was in love. It explained what love was like and, just maybe, what was wrong with it. solitude Jeffrey Eugenides
bf865e1 He was alone with his thoughts. They were extremely unpleasant thoughts and he would rather have had a chaperon. depressed scared solitude thinking thoughts Douglas Adams
401fe51 I understand I've made an unusual lifestyle choice. But the label 'crazy' bothers me. Annoys me. Because it prevents response. When someone asks if you're crazy, Knight lamented, you can either say yes, which makes you crazy, or you can say no, which makes you sound defensive, as if you fear that you really are crazy. There's no good answer. hermit isolation solitude Michael Finkel
fc4b149 Tu n'as rien appris, sinon que la solitude n'apprend rien, que l'indifference n'apprend rien: c'etait un leurre, une illusion fascinante et piegee. Tu etais seul et voila tout et tu voulais te proteger: qu'entre le monde et toi les ponts soient a jamais coupes. Mais tu es si peu de chose et le monde est un si grand mot: tu n'as jamais fait qu'errer dans une grande ville, que longer sur quelques kilometres des facades, des devantures, des parcs et des quais. L'indifference est inutile. Tu peux vouloir ou ne pas vouloir, qu'importe! Faire ou ne pas faire une partie de billard electrique, quelqu'un, de toute facon, glissera une piece de vingt centimes dans la fente de l'appareil. Tu peux croire qu'a manger chaque jour le meme repas tu accomplis un geste decisif. Mais ton refus est inutile. Ta neutralite ne veut rien dire. Ton inertie est aussi vaine que ta colere. indifference solitude Georges Perec
3667543 I went up on the hill and walked about until twilight had deepened into an autumn night with a benediction of starry quietude over it. I was alone but not lonely. I was a queen in halls of fancy. introversion pretty-prose quiet quietness romanticism solitude L.M. Montgomery
e072d65 If one sets aside time for a business appointment, a trip to the hairdresser, a social engagement or a shopping expedition, that time is accepted as inviolable. But if one says: I cannot come because that is my hour to be alone, one is considered rude, egotistical or strange. What a commentary on our civilization, when being alone is considered suspect; when one has to apologize for it, make excuses, hide the fact that one practices it--like a secret vice! solitude time Anne Morrow Lindbergh
7046b16 ...children never forget. For this reason, it was so important what one said, and what one did, and it was a relief when they went to bed. For now she need not think about anybody. She could be herself, by herself. And that was what now she often felt the need of-- to think; well, not even to think. To be silent; to be alone. All the being and the doing, expansive, glittering, vocal, evaporated; and one shrunk, with a sense of solemnity, to being oneself, a wedge-shaped core of darkness, something invisible to others. solitude Virginia Woolf
0e16360 So through endless twilights I dreamed and waited, though I knew not what I waited for. Then in the shadowy solitude my longing for light grew so frantic that I could rest no more, and I lifted entreating hands to the single black ruined tower that reached above the forest into the unknown outer sky. And at last I resolved to scale that tower, fall through I might; since it were better to glimpse the sky and perish, than to live without even beholding day. forest light longing sky solitude tower unknown waiting H.P. Lovecraft
b577241 Grieving, like being blind, is a strange business; you have to learn how to do it. We seek company in mourning, but after the early bursts of tears, after the praises have been spoken, and the good days remembered, and the lament cried, and the grave closed, there is no company in grief. It is a burden borne alone. mourning solitude Ursula K. Le Guin
aefd973 Selden and Lily stood still, accepting the unreality of the scene as a part of their own dream-like sensations. It would not have surprised them to feel a summer breeze on their faces, or to see the lights among the boughs reduplicated in the arch of a starry sky. The strange solitude about them was no stranger than the sweetness of being alone in it together. solitude unreality Edith Wharton
69e2d32 In good company your thoughts run, in solitude your thought is still; it goes deeper and makes for itself a deeper groove, delves. Delve meansa 'dig with a spade'; it means hard work. In talk your mind can be stretched, widened, exhilarated to heights but it cannot be deepened; you have to deepen it yourself. It needs sturdiness. You will be lonely, you will be depressed; you must expect it; if you were training your body it would ache and be tired. It is worth it. There is a Hindu proverb which says: 'You only grow when you are alone'. lonliness solitude Rumer Godden
9b69e8e He looked at the houses he had been passing these weeks and though he had never studied them carefully they had become familiar through the process of seeing them so often, and he was now impressed with the change in their appearance as he looked at them through the gray of the air and whiteness of the snow, each house, shrub, tree, bush and mailbox trimmed with snow and blending into the air as if they were just a picture projected upon the still, pearly grayness, just an impression created by the silent snow, a picture on the edge and verge of disappearing and leaving only the air and snow through which he now lightly walked. It did not seem possible, but the air was even softer and quieter. He continued walking alongside his prints feeling he could walk forever, that as long as the silent snow continued falling he could continue walking, and as he did he would leave behind all worries and cares, all horrors of the past and future. There would be nothing to bother him or torture his mind and fill his body with tremors of fear, the dark night of the soul over. There would only be himself and the soft, silent snow; and each flake, in its own life, its own separate and distinct entity, would bring with it its own joy, and he would easily partake of that joy as he continued walking, the gentle, silent snow falling ever so quietly, ever so joyously ... yes, and ever so love-ing-ly ... loveing-ly.... silence snow solitude song Hubert Selby Jr.
a81ee66 Little as she was addicted to solitude, there had come to be moments when it seemed a welcome escape from the empty noises of her life. solitude the-house-of-mirth Edith Wharton
05994d1 The ingenious person will above all strive for freedom from pain and annoyance, for tranquility and leisure, and consequently seek a quiet, modest life, as undisturbed as possible, and accordingly, after some acquaintance with so-called human beings, choose seclusion and, if in possession of a great mind, even solitude. For the more somebody has in himself, the less he needs from the outside and the less others can be to him. Therefore, intellectual distinction leads to unsociability. solitude unsociability Arthur Schopenhauer
0533c29 He looked down at the street, and the unbroken whiteness, and watched his foot touch the snow and listened to the slight crunching sound as he stepped forward. He looked back at his footprints. They were fascinating. He had been the only one to walk along this street today. There wasn't even the mark of a dog or squirrel, or the scratch of a bird. He continued through the soft, silent snow, a feeling of peace starting to flow through him, helping make his step lighter and easier. snow solitude Hubert Selby Jr.
6e64343 Intimacy between people requires closeness as well as distance. It is like dancing. Sometimes we are very close, touching each other or holding each other; sometimes we move away from each other and let the space between us become an area where we can freely move. To keep the right balance between closeness and distance requires hard work, especially since the needs of the partners may be quite different at a given moment. One might desire closeness while the other wants distance. One might want to be held while the other looks for independence. A perfect balance seldom occurs, but the honest and open search for that balance can give birth to a beautiful dance, worthy to behold. intimacy relationships solitude vulnerability Henri J.M. Nouwen
4b414cf The problem with making a virtual world of oneself is akin to the problem with projecting ourselves onto a cyberworld: there's no end of virtual spaces in which to seek stimulation, but their very endlessness, the perpetual stimulation without satisfaction, becomes imprisoning. boredom cyber cyberworld david-foster-wallace depression dissatisfaction distractions emptiness empty endlessness facebook facebook-addiction facebook-quotes filler first-world-problems jonathan-franzen loneliness lonely problems robinson-crusoe satisfaction solitary solitude stimulation suicide virtual void Jonathan Franzen
cfe9ab3 Solitude is the furnace of transformation. Without solitude we remain victims of our society and continue to be entangled in the illusions of the false self. Jesus himself entered into this furnace. There he was tempted with the three compulsions of the world: to be relevant ('turn stones into loaves'), to be spectacular ('throw yourself down'), and to be powerful ('I will give you all these kingdoms'). There he affirmed God as the only source of his identity ('You must worship the Lord your God and serve him alone'). Solitude is the place of the great struggle and the great encounter - the struggle against the compulsions of the false self, and the encounter with the loving God who offers himself as the substance of the new self. jesus solitude transformation Henri J.M. Nouwen
7b3dcec He liked the loneliness of inner space, the sense of being forgotten by the world. solitude Richard Preston
e03c1df In spring of youth it was my lot To haunt of the wide world a spot The which I could not love the less- So lovely was the loneliness Of a wild lake, with black rock bound, And the tall pines that towered around. But when the Night had thrown her pall Upon that spot, as upon all, And the mystic wind went by Murmuring in melody- Then-ah then I would awake To the terror of the lone lake. Yet that terror was not fright, But a tremulous delight- A feeling not the jewelled mine Could teach or bribe me to define- Nor Love-although the Love were thine. Death was in that poisonous wave, And in its gulf a fitting grave For him who thence could solace bring To his lone imagining- Whose solitary soul could make An Eden of that dim lake. lonliness poetry solitude Edgar Allan Poe
b3c7816 I know that the night is not the same as the day: that all things are different, that the things of the night cannot be explained in the day, because they do not then exist, and the night can be a dreadful time for lonely people once their loneliness has started. loneliness night solitude Ernest Hemingway
de8d70e He was welcome everywhere he went, and was well-aware of his inability to tolerate solitude. He felt no inclination to be alone and avoided it as far as possible; he didn't really want to become any better acquainted with himself. He knew that if he wanted to show his talents to best advantage, he needed to strike sparks off other people to fan the flames of warmth and exuberance in his heart. On his own he was frosty, no use to himself at all, like a match left lying in its box. personality solitude Stefan Zweig
e9006de "Noli me tangere, noli me legere, isolation latin loneliness loss pain self-reliance solitude Mark Z. Danielewski
92250b8 Long have I dwelt forgotten here In pining woe and dull despair; This place of solitude and gloom Must be my dungeon and my tomb. poetry solitude Anne Brontë
9ac0d88 Sometimes isolation can be shared. aloneness isolation loneliness solitude Ken Grimwood
f13e3ec They sell courage of a sort in the taverns. And another sort, though not for sale, a man can find in the confessional. Try the alehouses and the churches, Hugh. In either a man can be quiet and think. beer confession courage drinking quietness reflection solitude taverns thought withdrawal Ellis Peters
55b934a I also had a dim idea that if I walked the streets of New York by myself all night something of the city's mystery and magnificence might rub off on me at last. But I gave it up. magnificence mystery new-york solitude Sylvia Plath
fdd915e Experience has tutored me well that most will lie or cheat to get the better hand. It's why I prefer solitude to social interaction. - Bethany experience lie life solitude Sherrilyn Kenyon
920a98a Quartering the topmost branches of one of the tall trees, an invisible bird was striving to make the day seem shorter, exploring with a long-drawn note the solitude that pressed it on every side, but it received at once so unanimous an answer, so powerful a repercussion of silence and of immobility, that one felt it had arrested for all eternity the moment which it had been trying to make pass more quickly. birdsong passage-of-time silence solitude Marcel Proust
e5eac4b Quite alone. No voice, no touch, no hand....How long must I lie here? For ever? No, only for a couple of hundred years this time, miss.... solitude Jean Rhys
861ddf5 In the world of the dreamer there was solitude: all the exaltations and joys came in the moment of preparation for living. They took place in solitude. But with action came anxiety, and the sense of insuperable effort made to match the dream, and with it came weariness, discouragement, and the flight into solitude again. And then in solitude, in the opium den of remembrance, the possibility of pleasure again. What was she seeking to salvage from the daily current of living, what sudden revulsions drove her back into the solitary cell of the dream? solitude Anaïs Nin
4038953 Their drift away from others produced a selfish privacy and they had lost the refuge and the consolation of a clan. Baptists, Presbyterians, tribe, army, family, some encircling outside thing was needed. Pride, she thought. Pride alone made them think that they needed only themselves, could shape life that way, like Adam and Eve, like gods from nowhere beholden to nothing except their own creations. She should have warned them, but her devotion cautioned against impertinence. As long as Sir was alive it was easy to veil the truth: that they were not a family-not even a like-minded group. They were orphans, each and all. solitude Toni Morrison
354a2e1 There are moments, such as the one that oppresses me now, when I feel my own self far more than I feel external things, and everything transforms into a night of rain and mud where, lost in the solitude of an out-of-the-way station, I wait interminably for the next third-class train. solitude Fernando Pessoa
bbea56e Is there nowhere in an American house where one may be by one's self? solitude Edith Wharton
5538a73 Many voices ask for our attention. There is a voice that says, 'Prove that you are a good person.' Another voice says, 'You'd better be ashamed of yourself.' There also is a voice that says, 'Nobody really cares about you,' and one that says, 'Be sure to become successful, popular, and powerful.' But underneath all these often very noisy voices is a still, small voice that says, 'You are my Beloved, my favor rests on you.' That's the voice we need most of all to hear. To hear that voice, however, requires special effort; it requires solitude, silence, and a strong determination to listen. That's what prayer is. It is listening to the voice that calls us 'my Beloved'. god prayer silence solitude Henri J.M. Nouwen
2da4531 Any human companionship, even the dearest and most perfect, would have been alien to her then. She was sufficient unto herself, needing not love nor comradeship nor any human emotion to round out her felicity. Such moments come rarely in any life, but when they do come they are inexpressibly wonderful - as if the finite were for a second infinity - as if humanity were for a space uplifted into divinity - as if all ugliness had vanished, leaving only flawless beauty. introversion quiet solitude L.M. Montgomery
24d9101 How would you know if you were the last man on Earth? He said. I don't guess you would know it. You'd just be it. death life solitude Cormac McCarthy
db49456 As Sicknes is the greatest misery, so the greatest misery of sicknes, is solitude...Solitude is a torment which is not threatened in hell itselfe. -DONNE solitude Oliver Sacks
2f94315 ln yshj`k rfqk latwn, wln ywswk. ln ydlwk `l~ m fyk mn `nSr lkhyr wlSdq. bl`ks.. syHSwn `lyk kl GlT@, wln yrw Gyr `ywbk, wln ybynw lk l m 'nt fyh mkhTy', syf`lwn dhlk wfy nfwshm frH khbyth. wdh tZhrw lk b'nhm l yHflwn b'mrk bl yzdrwn sh'nk, knw fy lHqyq@ yfrHwn lkl m tq` fyh mn 'khT (k'n lnsn m`Swm mn lkhT'!). solitude Fyodor Dostoyevsky
2991ca8 Alone: for the first time I understood the terrible significance of that word. Alone without a witness, without anyone to speak to, without refuge. The breath in my body, the blood in my veins, all this hurly-burly in my head existed for nobody. faith loneliness solitude Simone de Beauvoir
2d87cdb D'une complexion farouche et bavarde, ayant le desir de ne voir personne et le besoin de parler a quelqu'un, il se tirait d'affaire en se parlant a lui-meme. Quiconque a vecu solitaire sait a quel point le monologue est dans la nature. La parole interieure demange. Haranguer l'espace est un exutoire. Parler tout haut et tout seul, cela fait l'effet d'un dialogue avec le dieu qu'on a en soit. solitude Victor Hugo
0c8e62d I am always quiet so that I know what to say when I must speak. silence solitude Ishmael Beah
1469cce All human beings are alone. No other person will completely feel like we do, think like we do, act like we do. Each of us is unique, and our aloneness is the other side of our uniqueness. The question is whether we let our aloneness become loneliness or whether we allow it to lead us into solitude. Loneliness is painful; solitude is peaceful. Loneliness makes us cling to others in desperation; solitude allows us to respect others in their uniqueness and create community. Letting our aloneness grow into solitude and not into loneliness is a lifelong struggle. It requires conscious choices about whom to be with, what to study, how to pray, and when we ask for counsel. But wise choices will help us to find the solitude where our hearts can grow in love. isolation loneliness relationships solitude Henri J.M. Nouwen
3617c2e A number of years ago I had some experience with being alone. For two succeeding years I was alone each winter for eight months at a stretch in the Sierra Nevada mountains on Lake Tahoe. I was the caretaker on a summer estate during the winter months when it was snowed in. And I made some observations then. As time went on I found that my reactions thickened. Ordinarily I am a whistler. I stopped whistling. I stopped conversing with my dogs, and I believe that the subtleties of feeling began to disappear until finally I was on a pleasure-pain basis. Then it occurred to me that the delicate shades of feeling, of reaction, are the result of communication, and without such communication they tend to disappear. A man with nothing to say has no words. Can its reverse be true- a man who has no one to say anything to has no words as he has no need for words? ... Only through imitation do we develop toward originality. companionship isolation loneliness solitude travels-with-charley winter John Steinbeck
a6f4b5c It is only in solitude that I ever find my own core. solitude space Anne Morrow Lindbergh
79f5087 The more I'm let alone and not worried the better I can function. solitude Ernest Hemingway
275a634 In solitude, struggles occur that no one else knows about. Inner battles are fought here that seldom become fodder for sermons or illustrations for books. God, who probes our deepest thoughts during protracted segments of solitude, opens our eyes to things that need attention. It is here He makes us aware of those things we try to hide from others. solitude spiritual-intimacy Charles R. Swindoll
b07207d "The evening I went for a walk. To walk for the sake of walking is something I seldom do.Inside my apartment I'd felt inexplicably anxious. I needed to talk to someone, to be reassured. Or perhaps I needed to confess my sin: I was once again having impure thoughts about saving the world. Or it was neither of these--I was afraid I was dreaming. Indeed, considering the events of the day, it was likely that I was dreaming. I sometimes fly in my dreams, and each time I say to myself, "At last--it's happening in reality and not in a dream!" In any case, I needed to talk to someone, and I was alone. This is my habitual condition, by choice--or so I tell myself. Mere acquaintanceship leaves me unsatisfied, and few people are willing to accept the burdens and risks of friendship as I conceive of it." friendships solitude daniel quinn
6a905c4 For I'm afraid of loneliness; shiveringly, terribly afraid. I don't mean the ordinary physical loneliness, for here I am, deliberately travelled away from London to get to it, to its spaciousness and healing. I mean that awful loneliness of spirit that is the ultimate tragedy of life. When you've got to that, really reached it, without hope, without escape, you die. You just can't bear it, and you die. escape fear hope london loneliness solitude soul spirit Elizabeth von Arnim
a68eb2d Drifting across the vast space, silent except for wind and footsteps, I felt uncluttered and unhurried for the first time in a while, already on desert time. explore silence solitude time travel wanderlust Rebecca Solnit
8bba5f1 I knew that on that island one was driven back into the past. There was so much space, so much silence, so few meetings that one too easily saw out of the present, and then the past seemed ten times closer than it was. nature past solitude John Fowles
a94ec80 Uzunca bir sure kendine siginaklar kurup yiktin: duzen ya da eylemsizlik, basibos suruklenme ya da uyku, geceleyin devriye gezmeler, yansiz anlar,golgelerin ve isiklarin kacisi.Daha uzun bir sure kendine yalan soylemeyi,kendini sersemlestirmeyi,kendi oyununa gelmeyi surdurebilirsin belki.Ama oyun bitti,buyuk senlik,ertelenmis yasamin yalanci sarhoslugu bitti.Dunya yerinden kipirdamadi ve sen degismedin. Kayitsizlik seni farkli kilmadi. solitude Georges Perec
bc9eb71 The threat of rain appears to have nothing to do with Joao Elvas's desire to be alone, and one must not forget that, strange as it may seem, some men can spend their entire life alone and enjoy solitude, especially if it is raining and their crust is hard. solitude José Saramago
41f2d47 Pasmo sempre quando acabo qualquer coisa. Pasmo e desolo-me. O meu instinto de perfeicao deveria inibir-me de acabar; deveria inibir-me ate de dar comeco. Mas distraio-me e faco. O que consigo e um produto, em mim, nao de uma aplicacao de vontade, mas de uma cedencia dela. Comeco porque nao tenho forca para pensar; acabo porque nao tenho alma para suspender. Este livro e a minha cobardia. inner-self life solitude Fernando Pessoa
fa5ce04 It was a lot more fun to get famous than to be famous. fame humility popularity solitude Bill Bryson
04cc68b Sitting in the brightly lit library, surrounded by books, in total silence, that was ma personal zenith. bookish books heroine introversion introvert irvine-welsh library literature read reader reading reading-books skagboys solitude zenith Irvine Welsh
e536b6e And then the days came when I was alone. solitude Jean Rhys
3e67fc0 Even brave men, and D'Arnot was a brave man, are sometimes frightened by solitude. solitude Edgar Rice Burroughs
0827919 She formed her life day by day, taking as its materials the emptiness and panic as well as the rushes, like fever, of contentment. I am beyond fear of solitude, she thought, I am past it. The idea thrilled her. I am beyond it and I will not sink. This submission, this triumph made her stronger. It was as if finally, after having passed through inferior stages, her life had found a form worthy of it. self-reliance solitude James Salter
34492c1 These young people amaze me; drinking their coffee, they tell clear, plausible stories. If you ask them what they did yesterday, they don't get flustered; they tell you all about it in a few words. If I were in their place, I'd start stammering. It's true that for a long time now nobody has bothered how I spend my time. When you live alone, you even forget what it is to tell a story : plausibility disappears at the same time as friends. existentialism solitude Jean-Paul Sartre
b5e6f41 The measure of your solitude is the measure of your capacity for communion. solitude Henri J.M. Nouwen
e26911f After all, she is lucky. I have been much too calm these past three years. I can receive nothing more from these tragic solitudes than a little empty purity. I leave. purity sartre solitude Jean-Paul Sartre
6e14de0 Of course, these were only dreams. How could a sensible woman leave a happy marriage? All the same, a seductive voice from afar kept breaking into her conjugal peace: it was the voice of solitude. marriage solitude spinster Milan Kundera
0190a2b The fear of rape puts many women in their place - indoors, intimidated, dependent yet again on material barriers and protectors... I was advised to stay indoors at night, to wear baggy clothes, to cover or cut my hair, to try to look like a man, to move someplace more expensive, to take taxis, to buy a car, to move in groups, to get a man to escort me--all modern versions of Greek walls and Assyrian veils, all asserting it was my responsibility to control my own and men's behavior rather than society's to ensure my freedom. I realized that many women had been so successfully socialized to know their place that they had chosen more conservative, gregarious lives without realizing why. The very desire to walk alone had been extinguished in them--but it had not in me. feminism nature rape-culture solitude travel wanderlust Rebecca Solnit
91ef39d "Reading well is one of the great pleasures experience great healing pleasures solitude Harold Bloom
b480571 "Ged saw all these things from outside and apart, alone, and his heart was very heavy in him, though he would not admit to himself that he was sad. As night fell he still lingered in the streets, reluctant to go back to the inn. He heard a man and a girl talking together merrily as they came down the street past him towards the town square, and all at once he turned, for he knew the man's voice. He followed and caught up with the pair, coming up beside them in the late twilight lit only by distant lantern-gleams. The girl stepped back, but the man stared at him and then flung up the staff he carried, holding it between them as a barrier to ward off the threat or act of evil. And that was somewhat more than Ged could bear. His voice shook a little as he said, "I thought you would know me, Vetch." Even then Vetch hesitated for a moment. "I do know you," he said, and lowered the staff and took Ged's hand and hugged him round the shoulders-" I do know you! Welcome, my friend, welcome! What a sorry greeting I gave you, as if you were a ghost coming up from behind- and I have waited for you to come, and looked for you-" loneliness recognition solitude welcome Ursula K. Le Guin
e4dbe6d He had grown fat on solitude, he thought, and had learned to expect nothing from the day but at best a dull contentment. Sometimes the dullness came to the fore with a strange and insistent ache which he would entertain briefly, but learn to keep at bay. Mostly, however, it was the contentment he entertained; the slow ease and the silence could, once night had fallen, fill him with a happiness that nothing, no society nor the company of any individual, no glamour or glitter, could equal. solitude Colm Tóibín
ffaba66 The rhythm of solitude, once so intimidating, began to feel comfortable. Aloneness, I was learning, does not have to equal loneliness. comfortable learning loneliness solitude John Grogan
492a5ab Live by yourself and you bound to talk yourself and when ye commence that folks start it up that you're light in the head. But I reckon it's all right to talk to a dog since most folks do even if a dog don't understand and cain't answer if he did. crazy dogs hermits pets solitude talking-to-yourself Cormac McCarthy
823bd26 It turned out plant collecting was a solitary occupation. In the past Robert had enjoyed being alone, or so he thought. Actually he had rarely been alone for long: working in hotels, in stables, on ranches and farms, and as a miner, he had always been around others. Now, out in the woods or up in the hills or out on the flat central plain, he could go for days without speaking to anyone. His throat seemed to close up and he had to keep clearing it, singing songs aloud or reciting the Latin names of plants, just to check that he still had a voice. 'Araucaria imbricata. Sequoia sempervirens. Pinus lambertiana. Abies magnifica'. He was surprised at how much he missed people.. solitude trees Tracy Chevalier
89c87e4 As minhas primeiras emocoes tinham sido a melancolia mais pura e a compaixao mais sincera, mas na mesma proporcao em que o desamparo de Bartleby crescia na minha fantasia, aquela melancolia se transformava em medo, e a compaixao, em repulsa. E tao verdadeiro e ao mesmo tempo tao terrivel o fato de que, ao vermos ou presenciarmos a miseria, os nossos melhores sentimentos sao despertados ate um cer to ponto; mas, em certos casos especiais, nao passam disso. Erram os que afirmam que e devido apenas ao egoismo inerente ao coracao humano. Na verdade, provem de uma certa impotencia em remediar um mal excessivo e organico. Para uma pessoa sensivel, a piedade e quase sempre uma dor. Quando afinal percebe que tal piedade nao significa um socorro eficaz, o bom senso compele a alma a desvencilhar-se dela. O que vi naquela manha convenceu-me de que o escrivao era vitima de um mal inato e incuravel. Eu podia dar esmolas ao seu corpo, mas o seu corpo nao lhe doia; era a sua alma que sofria, e ela estava fora do meu alcance. niilismo solitude Herman Melville
86af453 Once a person has become detached from his possessions, his customary duties, his moments of solitude, where is he? What is he? duties possessions solitude Patricia Highsmith
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