Solitude Quotes - Page 33

• 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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• Solitude is a necessary protest to the incursions and the false alarms of society's hysteria, a period of cure and recovery.

  Abraham Joshua Heschel

  Recovery, Hysteria, Alarms

  Abraham Joshua Heschel (1965). “Who is Man?”, p.44, Stanford University Press

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• Worthy books
  Are not companions – they are solitudes:
  We lose ourselves in them and all our cares.

  Philip James Bailey

  Book, Care, Worthy

  Philip James Bailey (1848). “Beauties of Festus”, p.20

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• Inspiration comes to us slowly and quietly . prime it with a little solitude.

  Brenda Ueland

  Inspiration, Littles, Prime

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• In solitude a dialogue always arises, because even in solitude there are always two.

  Hannah

  Two, Arise, Dialogue

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• To understand one's world, one must sometimes turn away from it! To serve better, one must briefly hold it at a distance. Where can the necessary solitude be found, the long breathing space in which mind gathers its strength and takes stock of its courage.

  Albert Camus

  Distance, Breathing Space, Long

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• Books are solitudes in which we meet.

  Rebecca Solnit

  Book

  Rebecca Solnit (2013). “The Faraway Nearby”, p.36, Granta Books

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• You have got me walking up and down all day under those trees, saying to me over and over again, "Solitude, solitude." And You have turned around and thrown the world in my lap. You have told me, "Leave all things and follow me," and then You have tied half of New York to my foot like a ball and chain. You have got me kneeling behind that pillar with my mind making a noise like a bank. Is that contemplation?

  Thomas Merton

  Wisdom, New York, Feet

  Thomas Merton (1998). “The Seven Storey Mountain”, p.484, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Imagination is strong in a man when that particular function of the brain which enables him to observe is roused to activity without any necessary excitement of the sense. Accordingly, we find that imagination is active just in proportion as our sense are not excited by external objects. A long period of solitude, whether in prison or in a sick room; quiet, twilight, darkness-these are the things that promote its activity; and under their influence it comes into play of itself.

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Strong, Twilight, Men

  Arthur Schopenhauer (2012). “Collected Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer”, p.247, Simon and Schuster

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• O Holy Spirit of God, abide with us; inspire all our thoughts; pervade our imaginations; suggest all our decisions; order all our doings. Be with us in our silence and in our speech, in our haste and in our leisure, in company and in solitude, in the freshness of the morning and in the weariness of the evening; and give us grace at all times humbly to rejoice in Thy mysterious companionship.

  John Baillie

  Morning, Order, Giving

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• Internally, you experience rowing as a graphic microcosm of life - solitude, learning, work, rest, nourishment, sharing and ultimately challenge.

  Allen Rosenberg

  Challenges, Rowing, Graphic

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• It is easier to sail many thousand miles through cold and storm and cannibals, ina government ship, with five hundred men and boys to assist one, than it is to explore the private sea, the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean of one's being alone.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Ocean, Men, Boys

  Henry David Thoreau (2009). “Walden”, p.208, Cosimo, Inc.

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• The Tao gives birth to One. One gives birth to Two. Two gives birth to Three. Three gives birth to all things. All things have their backs to the female and stand facing the male. When male and female combine, all things achieve harmony. Ordinary men hate solitude. But the Master makes use of it, embracing his aloneness, realizing he is one with the whole universe.

  Laozi

  Hate, Men, Two

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• Quiet time and solitude are vital to helping me keep perspective. I consider myself fortunate to have so much quiet built into my profession. I spend long hours by myself at my easel. And while I work, I think-of the future, of my loved ones, of God's goodness and the many exciting opportunities that surround me. I ponder the challenges I face, the needs of others, the direction my life is going.

  Thomas Kinkade

  Opportunity, Thinking, Long

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• The ideal person is he who, in the midst of the greatest silence and solitude, finds the intensest activity, and in the midst of the intensest activity finds the silence and solitude of the desert.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Inspiration, Practice, Silence

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.39, Manonmani Publishers

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• Learn the richness of solitude & quiet. That still small voice is yearning to be heard.

  Susan Jeffers

  Voice, Meditation, Quiet

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• The most important education you get is your own - the one you learn in solitude.

  Erica Jong

  Meditation, Important

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• Settle yourself in solitude, and you will come upon God in yourself.

  Teresa of Avila

  Spiritual, Settling

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• As my own father was sick, and miserably tied to his invalid's chair, he would have been abandoned had not an old servant performed for him a so-called service of love. My mother gave parties while he was perishing in solitude, and amused herself while he was suffering bitter agonies

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Mother, Father, Party

  "Schopenhauer and the Wild Years of Philosophy". Book by Rüdiger Safranski, trans. by Ewald Osers, 1987.

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