Solitude Quotes - Page 32

• Society is no comfort, to one not sociable.

  William Shakespeare

  Comfort, Sociable

  1610 Innogen. Cymbeline, act 4, sc.2, l.12-13.

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• The thought, the deadly thought of solitude.

  John Keats

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• And being alone is the best way to be
  When I'm by myself it's the best way to be
  When I'm all alone it's the best way to be
  When I'm by myself nobody else can say goodbye

  Edie Brickell

  Goodbye, Way, All Alone

  Song: Circle Of Friends

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• We come into the world alone. We go away the same. We're meant to spend the interlude between in closeness or so we tell ourselves. But it's a long way from the morning to the evening.

  Rod McKuen

  Morning, Long, Going Away

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• I chose the shadows; they did not choose me. I stay here securely not just because I feel plain, but because disappearance is by now the easy way. The habit. The worn path that I can trod knowingly and be assured safe passage home.

  Rod McKuen

  Home, Shadow, Safe

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• We cannot confront solitude without moral resources.

  Honore de Balzac

  Moral, Resources

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• Deliberately seeking solitude-quality time spent away from family and friends-may seem selfish. It is not. Solitude is as necessary for our creative spirits to develop and flourish as are sleep and food for our bodies to survive.

  Sarah Ban Breathnach

  Selfish, Sleep, Creative

  Sarah Ban Breathnach (2008). “Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort of Joy”, p.234, Hachette UK

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• It is a difficult lesson to learn today-to leave one's friends and family and deliberately practice the art of solitude for an hour or a day or a week. And yet, once it is done, I find there is a quality to being alone that is incredibly precious. Life rushes back into the void, richer, more vivid, fuller than before.

  Anne Morrow Lindbergh

  Art, Practice, Quality

  Anne Morrow Lindbergh (2010). “Gift from the Sea”, p.34, Random House

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• Wise people are never less alone than when they are alone.

  Jonathan Swift

  Wise, People, Wise People

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• In order to understand the world, one has to turn away from it on occasion; in order to serve others better, one has to hold them at a distance for a time. But where can one find the solitude necessary to vigor, the deep breath in which the mind collects itself and courage gauges its strength? There remain big cities.

  Albert Camus

  Distance, Order, Cities

  Albert Camus (2012). “The Myth of Sisyphus: And Other Essays”, p.157, Vintage

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• Our equal and opposite needs for solitude and community constitute a great paradox. When it is torn apart, both of these life-giving states of being degenerate into deathly specters of themselves. Solitude split off from community is no longer a rich and fulfilling experience of inwardness; now it becomes loneliness, a terrible isolation. Community split off from solitude is no longer a nurturing network of relationships; now it becomes a crowd, an alienating buzz of too many people and too much noise.

  Parker J. Palmer

  Loneliness, Opposites, People

  Parker J. Palmer (2012). “The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life”, p.68, John Wiley & Sons

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• In the depths of the night, fear grips my heart. It paralyzes my mind. But most of all, I feel very, very alone

  Lily Tomlin

  Heart, Night, Mind

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• Mathematical Mark all mathematical heads, which be only and wholly bent to those sciences, how solitary they be themselves, how unfit to live with others, and how unapt to serve in the world.

  Roger Ascham

  Learning, Math, Science

  "The whole works of Roger Ascham".

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• We need quiet time to examine our lives openly and honestly...spending quiet time alone gives your mind an opportunity to renew itself and create order.- Susan Taylor--Everyone has a talent. What is rare is the courage to nurture it in solitude and to follow the talent to the dark places where it leads.

  Erica Jong

  Dark, Opportunity, Order

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• Solitude is un-American.

  Erica Jong

  1973 Fear of Flying, ch.1.

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• We are a most solitary people, and we live, repelled by one another, in the gray, outcast cities of Cain.

  Edward Dahlberg

  Cities, People, Cain

  Edward Dahlberg (1967). “Alms for Oblivion”, U of Minnesota Press

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• Well has he lived who has lived well in obscurity.

  Ovid

  Obscurity, Wells

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• The whole business of your life overwhelms you when you live alone. One's stupefied by it. To get rid of it you try to daub some of it off on to people who come to see you, and they hate that. To be alone trains one for death.

  Louis-Ferdinand Celine

  Business, Hate, People

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• The years I have squandered in puerile excitement, in going hither and thither, in seeking to force nature and time, I ought to have spent in solitude and meditation, in endeavoring to make myself worthy of being loved.

  Theophile Gautier

  Patience, Years, Meditation

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• The conductor's stand is not a continent of power, but rather an island of solitude.

  Riccardo Muti

  Islands, Continents, Conductor

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• Every corner in a house, every angle in a room, every inch of secluded space in which we like to hide, or withdraw into ourselves, is a symbol of solitude for the imagination; that is to say, it is the germ of a room, or of a house.

  Gaston Bachelard

  Space, Imagination, House

  "'Large White House Speaking' by Mark Irwin" reviewed by Alexis Orgera, therumpus.net. April 23, 2014.

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• When society is made up of men who know no interior solitude it can no longer be held together by love: and consequently it is held together by a violent and abusive authority. But when men are violently deprived of the solitude and freedom which are their due, then society in which they live becomes putrid, it festers with servility, resentment and hate.

  Thomas Merton

  Wisdom, Hate, Men

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• There is an old proverb to the effect that 'all those who open their mouths, close their eyes!' The purpose of silence and solitude is to be able to see and hear. Control rather than no noise is the key to silence. James saw clearly that the person who could control his tounge is perfect (James 3:1-12). Under the Discipline of silence and solitude we learn when to speak and when to refrain from speaking.

  Richard J. Foster

  Eye, Keys, Perfect

  Richard J. Foster (1995*). “Richard Foster's treasury of Christian discipline”, Jossey-Bass

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• The Spiritual Disciplines are things that we do. We must never lose sight of this fact. It is one thing to talk piously about 'the solitude of the heart,' but if that does not somehow work its way into our experience, then we have missed the point of the Disciplines. We are dealing with actions, not merely states of mind.

  Richard J. Foster

  Spiritual, Heart, Sight

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• Wilderness can be appreciated only by contrast, and solitude understood only when we have been without it. We cannot separate ourselves from society, comradeship, sharing and love. Unless we can contribute something from wilderness experience, derive some solace or peace to share with others, then the real purpose is defeated.

  Sigurd F. Olson

  Real, And Love, Purpose

  Sigurd F Olson (2012). “Reflections from the North Country”, p.52, Knopf

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