Solitude Quotes - Page 21

• Solitude is an excellent laboratory in which to observe the extent to which manners and habits are conditioned by others.

  Richard E. Byrd

  Habit, Excellent, Manners

  Richard E. Byrd (2003). “Alone: The Classic Polar Adventure”, p.139, Island Press

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• In solitude we find psychic distance, the perspective from which we can see, in the light of eternity, the created things that trap, worry, and oppress us.

  Dallas Willard

  Distance, Light, Psychics

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• Solitude and company may be allowed to take their turns: the one creates in us the love of mankind, the other that of ourselves; solitude relieves us when we are sick of company, and conversation when we are weary of being alone, so that the one cures the other. There is no man so miserable as he that is at a loss how to use his time

  Seneca the Younger

  Loss, Men, Sick

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• Solitude, seeming a sanctuary, proves a grave; a sepulchre in which the living lie, where all good qualities grow sick and die

  William Cowper

  Lying, Sick, Quality

  William Cowper (1857). “The Poetical Works of William Cowper: With a Memoir of the Author”, p.124

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• The reading of the word of God should be performed in solitude, in order that the whole mind of the reader might be plunged into the truths of the Holy Scripture, and that from this he might receive warmth, which in solitude produces tears; from these a man is wholly warmed and is filled with spiritual gifts, which rejoice the mind and heart more than any word.

  Seraphim of Sarov

  Spiritual, Reading, Heart

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• I think writers have to be able to enjoy solitude rather than just endure it. I've always enjoyed being left alone with my imagination, ever since I was a kid.

  Peter Robinson

  Kids, Thinking, Imagination

  Interview with Sarah Kinson, www.theguardian.com. November 19, 2008.

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• The imaginations excited by the view of an unknown and untravelled wilderness are not such as arise in the artificial solitude of parks and gardens... The phantoms which haunt a desert are want, and misery, and danger; the evils of dereliction rush upon the thoughts; man is made unwillingly acquainted with his own weakness, and meditation shows him only how little he can sustain, and how little he can perform.

  Samuel Johnson

  Men, Garden, Views

  Samuel Johnson (1824). “Works: With an Essay on His Life and Genius”, p.255

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• It is in lonely solitude that God delivers His best thoughts, and the mind needs to be still and quiet to receive them.

  Charles R. Swindoll

  Lonely, Mind, Needs

  Charles R. Swindoll (1993). “The Quest for Character: Inspirational Thoughts for Becoming More Like Christ”, p.62, Harper Collins

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• Talents are nurtured best in solitude, But character on life's tempestuous seas!

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Character, Sea, Talent

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1850). “Dramatic works: Comprising Faust, Iphigenia in Tauris, Torquato Tasso, Egmont. Transl. by Anna Swanwick. And Goetz v. Berlichingen. Transl. by Sir Walter Scott. Carefully rev”, p.227

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• Solitude is sometimes the best society.

  John Milton

  Sometimes

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• The person who abides in solitude and quiet is delivered from fighting three battles: hearing, speech, and sight. Then there remains one battle to fight-the battle of the heart.

  Anthony the Great

  Heart, Fighting, Sight

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• Solitude is the one place where we can gain freedom from the forces of society that will otherwise relentlessly mold us. Solitude requires relentless perseverance.

  John Ortberg

  Perseverance, Mold, Gains

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• Solitude is so necessary both for society and for the individual that when society fails to provide sufficient solitude to develop the inner life of the persons who compose it, they rebel and seek false solitudes.

  Thomas Merton

  Rebel, Failing, Individual

  Thomas Merton (2002). “No Man Is an Island”, p.271, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• It took me years to learn to sit at my desk for more than two minutes at a time, to put up with the solitude and the terror of failure, and the godawful silence and the white paper.

  Erica Jong

  Years, Two, White

  FaceBook post by Erica Jong from Jan 31, 2012

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• The most incredible thing is that so much happens outside of the will. You can't will anything. Not even solitude is an act of will. You simply endure it. You must hold on until the very end, without weakening. You can do nothing else. But you must not believe that because you accept being nothing, you are anyone special.

  Bram van Velde

  Believe, Special, Incredibles

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• Motherhood rarely allows for solitude, yet it begets its own kind of isolation: from one's past, from one's youth, from the women we once thought we were and would become.

  Hannah Nordhaus

  Motherhood, Past, Youth

  Hannah Nordhaus (2015). “American Ghost: A Family's Extraordinary History on the Desert Frontier”, p.11, Harper Collins

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• The thought of attention made me want to hide in a closet. I wasn't a kid who liked attention. I liked solitude and I still kind of do.

  Daria Werbowy

  Kids, Attention, Want

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• I remember getting my first cell phone in New York, getting into a taxi and thinking "This is the end of solitude in the back of a taxi." What used to happen in the back of a taxi? You looked out the window. My brain has become less able to spend lengths of time without shifting, and I worry about that.

  Dani Shapiro

  New York, Thinking, Phones

  Source: therumpus.net

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• I think so much about how we read, about the nature of solitude, and of community, is changing in ways that none of us yet understand.

  Dani Shapiro

  Thinking, Community, Way

  Source: therumpus.net

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• Isolation, but it's a good vulnerability. Humbling. I actually seek out solitude.

  Brendan Dooling

  Isolation, Humbling, Vulnerability

  "Brendan Dooling is passionate about everything he works on". Interview with Maranda Pleasant, www.marandapleasantmedia.com.

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• I love that I'm alone all the time. I love sleeping next to no one. I really don't like solitude.

  Dakota Johnson

  Sleep, Next

  Source: www.moviesonline.ca

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• Karamakate says, "to become a warrior, every Cohiuano man must leave everything behind and go into the jungle, guided only by his dreams. In that journey, he has to discover, in solitude and silence, who he really is."

  Tom Cole

  Dream, Warrior, Journey

  "'Serpent' Film Explores, Revives Lost Cultural Knowledge For Colombians". "Weekend Edition Sunday" with Tom Cole, www.npr.org. February 21, 2016.

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• You probably can't get much closer to God than serving a congregation 24/7. At the same time, there's a different kind of closeness in this present life I have in which I have much more freedom to come and go and to engage some of the silence and stillness and solitude that I was missing before.

  Barbara Brown Taylor

  Silence, Missing, Different

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• I like my solitude, and I'm a strong-willed person; I'm a very hard-to-be-around person sometimes, I guess.

  Bradford Cox

  Strong, Sometimes, Persons

  Source: pitchfork.com

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• Kerouac's books portray a hero and narrator free and easy, confident, sure of his rebellion against the American system. In reality, Jack was torn between Catholicism, Buddhism, and his own demon-driven pursuit of kicks, between spirit and flesh, between mom's house and the Beat coffeehouse, patriotism and subversion, men and women, society and solitude, carousing and meditation, sacred and profane, secular and divine. It's a miracle he survived as long as he did.

  Gerald Nicosia

  Mom, Hero, Book

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