Solitude Quotes - Page 40

• Solitude either develops the mental power, or renders men dull and vicious.

  Victor Hugo

  Men, Dull, He Man

  Victor Hugo (2016). “Toilers of the Sea”, p.45, Victor Hugo

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• And for this you must have quiet and solitude. But society does not allow you to have them. You must be with people, outwardly active at all costs. If you are alone you are considered antisocial or peculiar, or you are afraid of your own loneliness.

  Jiddu Krishnamurti

  Loneliness, People, Doe

  Jiddu Krishnamurti (1991). “The Collected Works of J. Krishnamurti: 1936-1944, The mirror of relationship”, Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company

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• There is no free society without silence, without the internal and external spaces of solitude in which the individual freedom can develop.

  Herbert Marcuse

  Space, Silence, Individual

  Herbert Marcuse (2004). “The New Left and the 1960s: Collected Papers of Herbert Marcuse”, p.117, Routledge

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• There is not true intimacy between souls who do not know how to respect one another's solitude.

  Thomas Merton

  Soul, Intimacy, Know How

  Thomas Merton (2005). “No Man is an Island”, p.175, Shambhala Publications

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• Nature has made us a present of a broad capacity for entertaining ourselves apart, and often calls us to do so, to teach us that we owe ourselves in part to society, but in the best part to ourselves.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Made, Capacity, Broads

  Michel de Montaigne (1963). “Montaigne's Essays and Selected Writings”

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• A man should keep for himself a little back shop, all his own, quite unadulterated, in which he establishes his true freedom and chief place of seclusion and solitude.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Men, Meditation, Littles

  'Essais' (1580) bk. 1, ch. 39

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• No one can help us to achieve the intimate isolation by which we find our secret worlds, so mysterious, rich and full. If others intervene, it is destroyed. This degree of thought, which we attain by freeing ourselves from the external world, must be fed by the inner spirit, and our surroundings cannot influence us in any way other than to leave us in peace.

  Maria Montessori

  Secret, Degrees, World

  Maria Montessori (1970). “The child in the family”, Contemporary Books

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• One man runs to his neighbor because he is looking for himself, and another because he wants to loose himself. Your bad love of yourselves makes solitude a prison for you.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Running, Men, Want

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• 'He who seeks may easily get lost himself. It is a crime to go apart and be alone.' Thus speaks the herd.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  May, Speak, Crime

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• On the whole, the longing for solitude is a sign that there still is spirit in a person and is a measure of what spirit there is.

  Soren Kierkegaard

  Spirit, Longing, Persons

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• She would not exchange her solitude for anything. Never again to be forced to move to the rhythms of others.

  Tillie Olsen

  Moving, Rhythm

  Tillie Olsen (2013). “Tell Me a Riddle, Requa I, and Other Works”, p.60, U of Nebraska Press

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• All the unhappiness of men arises from one single fact, that they cannot stay quietly in their own chamber.

  Blaise Pascal

  Men, Facts, Unhappiness

  Blaise Pascal, W. F. Trotter, T. S. Eliot (2003). “Pensees”, p.39, Courier Corporation

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• Something of the hermit's temper is an essential element in many forms of excellence, since it enables men to resist the lure of popularity, to pursue important work in spite of general indifference or hostility, and arrive at opinions which are opposed to prevalent errors.

  Bertrand Russell

  Men, Errors, Excellence

  Bertrand Russell (2004). “Power: A New Social Analysis”, p.37, Routledge

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• The young should early be trained to bear being left alone; for it is a source of happiness and peace of mind.

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Mind, Bears, Source

  Arthur Schopenhauer (2012). “Collected Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer”, p.20, Simon and Schuster

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• Solitude is the furnace of transformation.

  Henri Nouwen

  Transformation, Furnaces

  Henri J. M. Nouwen (2016). “The Spiritual Life: Eight Essential Titles by Henri Nouwen”, p.18, HarperCollins

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• In solitude we become aware that our worth is not the same as our usefulness.

  Henri Nouwen

  Usefulness

  Henri J. M. Nouwen (2010). “Spiritual Formation: Following the Movements of the Spirit”, p.19, Harper Collins

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• I have only one desire, and that is the desire for solitude-to disappear into God, to be submerged in His peace, to be lost in the secret of His Face.

  Thomas Merton

  Secret, Desire, Faces

  Thomas Merton (2009). “Entering the Silence: Becoming a Monk and a Writer”, p.51, Harper Collins

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• When you meditate, go into the solitude of a forest, or a quiet corner, and enter into the chamber of your heart. And always keep your power of discrimination awake.

  Ramakrishna

  Heart, Meditation, Forests

  "Ramakrishna and His Disciples". Book by Christopher Isherwood, 1965.

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• Well, we're grasping for two things at once. Partly for communion with others - that's the deepest instinct in us. And partly, we're seeking security. By constant communion with others we hope we shall be able to accept the horrible fact of our total solitude.

  Ingmar Bergman

  Two, Able, Facts

  "Bergman on Bergman: Interviews with Ingmar Bergman" by Stig Bjorkman, Torsten Manns, Jonas Sima, translated by Paul Britten Austin, 1973.

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• I go to work as others rush to see their mistresses, and when I leave, I take back with me to my solitude, or in the midst of the distractions that I pursue, a charming memory that does not in the least resemble the troubled pleasure of lovers.

  Eugene Delacroix

  Memories, Mistress, Doe

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• Where now is Britain? . Even as the savage sits upon the stone That marks were stood her capitols, and hears The bittern booming in the weeds, he shrinks From the dismaying solitude.

  Henry Kirke White

  Weed, Savages, Stones

  Samuel Rogers, Thomas Campbell, James Montgomery, Charles Lamb, Henry Kirke White (1841). “The Poetical Works of Rogers, Campbell, J. Montgomery, Lamb, and Kirke White”, p.490

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• Self-absorption intensifies isolation, but permits it to go unnoticed.

  Mason Cooley

  Self, Isolation, Permit

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• A poet is a nightingale, who sits in darkness and sings to cheer its own solitude with sweet sounds; his auditors are as men entranced by the melody of an unseen musician, who feel that they are moved and softened, yet know not whence or why.

  Percy Bysshe Shelley

  Sweet, Cheer, Men

  Percy Bysshe Shelley (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley (Illustrated)”, p.1908, Delphi Classics

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• Along with this rapid growth of forms of communication at our disposal - be it fax, phone, email, internet or whatever - human solitude will increase in direct proportion.

  Werner Herzog

  Communication, Technology, Phones

  "Herzog on Herzog". Book by Werner Herzog, en.wikiquote.org. 2002.

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• We've known about the transcendent power of solitude for centuries; it's only recently that we've forgotten it.

  Susan Cain

  Power, Forgotten, Century

  "Introverts Run the World - Quietly". edition.cnn.com. March 18, 2012.

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