quotations about solitude
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
A solitude is the audience-chamber of God.
WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR
Imaginary Conversations
I hold this to be the highest task of a bond between two people: that each should stand guard over the solitude of the other.
RAINER MARIA RILKE
Letters to a Young Poet
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
Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong.
WINSTON CHURCHILL
attributed, Wisdom for the Soul: Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing
The value of solitude -- one of it's values -- is, of course, that there is nothing to cushion against attacks from within.
MAY SARTON
Journal of a Solitude
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
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
Solitude is not measured by the miles of space that intervene between a man and his fellows. The really diligent student in one of the crowded hives of Cambridge College is as solitary as a dervish in the desert.
HENRY DAVID THOREAU
Walden: Or, Life in the Woods
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
Aloneness is inevitable in being human. People cannot accept this. They should be aware of it and use it. It heightens your perceptions.
EDWARD ALBEE
The Daily Mail, 1969
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.
VIRGINIA WOOLF
The Waves
No encounter with yourself can be altogether sterile. Something necessarily emerges, even if only the hope of someday meeting yourself again.
EMIL CIORAN
"Strangled Thoughts", The New Gods
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
Are there no solitudes out of the cave and the desert; or cannot the heart in the midst of crowds feel frightfully alone?
CHARLES LAMB
"Estimate of De Foe's Secondary Novels", The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb: Miscellaneous prose, 1798-1834
In my solitude you haunt me
With reveries of days gone by
In my solitude you taunt me
With memories that never die
ELLA FITZGERALD
"Solitude"
We hear voices in solitude, we never hear in the hurry and turmoil of life; we receive counsels and comforts, we get under no other condition.
AMELIA E. BARR
All the Days of My Life
Solitude is connected to the experience of wonder. It inspires humility. And it opens the door to reflection and insight.
ANDREW FIALA
"In today's crowded world, even Yosemite in summer can't provide necessary solitude", Fresno Bee, July 21, 2017
It is known to many that we need solitude to find ourselves. Perhaps it is not so well known that we need solitude to find our fellows.
HAVELOCK ELLIS
Selected Essays
Solitude sometimes is
Life that no longer exists
Solitude sometimes is
When there's nothing left to give
MANIC STREET PREACHERS
"Solitude Sometimes Is"