quotations about solitude
Solitude holds a cup sparkling with bliss in her right hand, a raging dagger in her left; to the blest she offers her goblet, but stretches toward the wretch the ruthless steel!
FRIEDRICH GOTTLIEB KLOPSTOCK
Der Messias
Sail away, I sail away, I sail nowhere, nowhere, nowhere
Hear her laugh through the air
Down from the past into my lair
I want you in solitude
THREE FISH
"Solitude"
'Tis solitude should teach us how to die;
It hath no flatterers; vanity can give
No hollow aid; alone--man with his God must strive.
LORD BYRON
Childe Harold
In solitude, if we escape the example of bad men, we likewise want the conversation and counsel of the good.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
attributed, Day's Collacon
The human animal needs a freedom seldom mentioned, freedom from intrusion. He needs a little privacy quite as much as he wants understanding or vitamins or exercise or praise.
PHYLLIS MCGINLEY
The Province of the Heart
I love solitude, but I prize it most when plenty of company is available.
SAUL BELLOW
letter to Albert Glotzer, April 19, 1996
Solitude is indeed dangerous for a working intelligence. We need to have around us people who think and speak. When we are alone for a long time we people the void with phantoms.
GUY DE MAUPASSANT
Le Horla et autres contes fantastiques
Solitude is separate experience.
ALICE MEYNELL
"Solitude", The Spirit of Place and Other Essays
Solitude is as needful to the imagination as society is wholesome for the character.
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL
Dryden
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.
JODI PICOULT
My Sister's Keeper
There are days when solitude is a heady wine that intoxicates you with freedom, others when it is a bitter tonic, and still others when it is a poison that makes you beat your head against the wall.
COLETTE
Earthly Paradise: An Autobiography
Solitude, though favorable to the development of genius, is not favorable to the growth of character.
GEORGE STILLMAN HILLARD
attributed, Day's Collacon
The capacity of the individual to be alone [is] one of the most important signs of maturity in emotional development.
D. W. WINNICOTT
"The capacity to be alone", The Maturational Processes and the Facilitating Environment
There's a river flowing away from my door
Think I'll sail away
Oh, and one day baby
I will feel no pain
Think it's raining in my soul
Flowing from my eyes
Think this morning will see us
Say our last goodbyes
I'm leaving Lady Solitude behind me
You understand
RICHARD HAWLEY
"Lady Solitude"
And Wisdom's self
Oft seeks to sweet retired solitude,
Where, with her best nurse, Contemplation,
She plumes her feathers, and lets grow her wings,
That in the various bustle of resort
Were all too ruffled, and sometimes impaired.
JOHN MILTON
Comus
Solitude is very sad,
Too much company twice as bad.
WILLIAM ALLINGHAM
"Blackberries"
Solitude bears the same relation to the mind, that sleep does to the body; it affords it the necessary opportunity for repose and recovery.
W. G. SIMMS
attributed, Day's Collacon
Loneliness can be conquered only by those who can bear solitude. We have a natural desire for solitude because we are men. We want to feel what we are -- namely, alone -- not in pain and horror, but with joy and courage.
PAUL TILLICH
The Eternal Now
A man can be himself only so long as he is alone; and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom; for it is only when he is alone that he is really free.
ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER
Essays and Aphorisms
We're afraid of solitude because we're afraid of the feelings that will rise before we can be at ease, afraid to confront who we are when stripped of our "doing" nature. We feel a need to be surrounded by people, by activity; to entrain with another's rhythm -- anything but solitude ... Solitude takes practice. It requires facing down loneliness and realizing that there is nothing more important you can do. Far from being an indulgence, quiet contemplation -- "doing nothing" -- is as restorative as an elixir.
STEPHAN RECHTSCHAFFEN
Timeshifting: Creating More Time to Enjoy Your Life