Solitude Quotes - Page 37

• I became bold because I had absolutely nothing to lose: neither honors, nor earnings, nor friends. I had to find myself anew and rely only on myself, because I could rely on no one else. My form is my solitude.

  Witold Gombrowicz

  Honor, Earning, Nothing To Lose

  Witold Gombrowicz, Jan Kott, Lillian Vallee (1989). “Diary”, p.30, Northwestern University Press

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• The attraction of snowboarding is the freedom it gives you. With a snowboard on your feet the sky is the limit. You can do anything and go anywhere. This is not just for pro riders. It is for everyone.
  The other amazing thing with snowboarding is how easy it is to get away from people and enjoy the solitude of the mountains. Its almost impossible in surfing but with snowboarding it is a short hike from the top of the lift or the side of the road.

  Jeremy Jones

  Freedom, Sky, Feet

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• Inward solitude has outward manifestations. There is the freedom to be alone, not in order to be away from people but in order to hear the divine Whisper better.

  Richard J. Foster

  Order, People, Inward

  Richard J. Foster (1995*). “Richard Foster's treasury of Christian discipline”, Jossey-Bass

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• We must understand the connection between inner solitude and inner silence; they are inseparable. All the masters of the interior life speak of the two in the same breath.

  Richard J. Foster

  Two, Silence, Connections

  Richard J. Foster (1995*). “Richard Foster's treasury of Christian discipline”, Jossey-Bass

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• There is an old proverb to the effect that 'all those who open their mouths, close their eyes!' The purpose of silence and solitude is to be able to see and hear. Control rather than no noise is the key to silence. James saw clearly that the person who could control his tounge is perfect (James 3:1-12). Under the Discipline of silence and solitude we learn when to speak and when to refrain from speaking.

  Richard J. Foster

  Eye, Keys, Perfect

  Richard J. Foster (1995*). “Richard Foster's treasury of Christian discipline”, Jossey-Bass

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• The Spiritual Disciplines are things that we do. We must never lose sight of this fact. It is one thing to talk piously about 'the solitude of the heart,' but if that does not somehow work its way into our experience, then we have missed the point of the Disciplines. We are dealing with actions, not merely states of mind.

  Richard J. Foster

  Spiritual, Heart, Sight

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• The fruit of solitude is increased sensitivity and compassion for others. There comes a new freedom to be with people. There is new attentiveness to their needs, new responsiveness to their hurts. Thomas Merton observes, 'It is in deep solitude that I find the gentleness with which I can truly love my brothers. The more solitary I am the more affection I have for them.... Solitude and silence teach me to love my brothers for what they are, not for what they say.

  Richard J. Foster

  Hurt, Brother, Compassion

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• There is magic in the feel of a paddle and the movement of a canoe, a magic compounded of distance, adventure, solitude, and peace. The way of a canoe is the way of the wilderness and of a freedom almost forgotten. It is an antidote to insecurity, the open door to waterways of ages past and a way of life with profound and abiding satisfactions. When a man is part of his canoe, he is part of all that canoes have ever known.

  Sigurd F. Olson

  Distance, Adventure, Past

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• Wilderness can be appreciated only by contrast, and solitude understood only when we have been without it. We cannot separate ourselves from society, comradeship, sharing and love. Unless we can contribute something from wilderness experience, derive some solace or peace to share with others, then the real purpose is defeated.

  Sigurd F. Olson

  Real, And Love, Purpose

  Sigurd F Olson (2012). “Reflections from the North Country”, p.52, Knopf

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• People are lonely. The network is seductive. But if we are always on, we may deny ourselves the rewards of solitude.

  Sherry Turkle

  Lonely, People, Seductive

  Sherry Turkle (2011). “Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other”, p.23, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• It’s a way of life to be always texting and when you looks at these texts it really is thoughts in formation. I do studies where I just sit for hours and hours at red lights watching people unable to tolerate being alone. Its as though being along has become a problem that needs to be solved and then technology presents itself as a solution to this problem…Being alone is not a problem that needs to be solved. The capacity for solitude is a very important human skill.

  Sherry Turkle

  Technology, Light, Skills

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• To love ourselves is to act respectfully toward ourselves, to enjoy our own company when in solitude, to honor our limits and speak our truths.

  Anodea Judith

  Honor, Limits, Speak

  Anodea Judith (2011). “Eastern Body, Western Mind: Psychology and the Chakra System As a Path to the Self”, p.231, Celestial Arts

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• Some Christians try to go to heaven alone, in solitude; but believers are not compared to bears, or lions, or other animals that wander alone; but those who belong to Christ are sheep in this respect, that they love to get together. Sheep go in flocks, and so do God’s people.

  Charles Spurgeon

  Christian, Animal, Sheep

  Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1988). “Spurgeon at His Best: Over 2200 Striking Quotations from the World's Most Exhaustive and Widely-read Sermon Series”, Baker Publishing Group

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• Loneliness is only an opportunity to cut adrift and find yourself. In solitude you are least alone.

  Bruce Lee

  Loneliness, Cutting, Opportunity

  Bruce Lee (2015). “Bruce Lee Striking Thoughts: Bruce Lee's Wisdom for Daily Living”, p.101, Tuttle Publishing

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• I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. . . . In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Inspirational, Dream, Live Life

  Walden ch. 18 (1854)

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• It is essential not only to the souls of painters and poets, who thrive in solitude, but to the rest of us, too--individuals whose canvas is our lives.

  Sue Halpern

  Soul, Essentials, Canvas

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• The world doesn’t fully make sense until the writer has secured his version of it on the page. And the act of writing is strangely more lifelike than life….every person who does serious time with a keyboard is attempting to translate his version of the world into words so that he might be understood…. Your job is to marshal the talent you do have and find people who believe in your work. What’s important, finally, is that you create, and that those creations define for you what matters most, that which cannot be extinguished even in the face of silence, solitude, and rejection.

  Betsy Lerner

  Jobs, Believe, Writing

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• However, the serious seeker of detachment will have to embrace the Holy Trinity of Ss - Solitude, Stillness and Silence - and reject the new religion of Commotionism, which believes that the meaning of life is constant company, movement and noise.

  Michael Foley

  Believe, Silence, Meaning Of Life

  Michael Foley (2010). “The Age of Absurdity: Why Modern Life makes it Hard to be Happy”, p.77, Simon and Schuster

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• To realize that one is really alone, gives new courage to the person. Discovery of truth is a journey, a voyage on which one has to launch alone. You cannot impose the inquiry of truth in the heart of your partner. You cannot compel your partner to have the same intensity or the same depth of inquiry. So irrespective of where you are, the voyage has to be launched upon alone. Taking the inward journey and arriving at silence, is a voyage in solitude.

  Vimala Thakar

  Heart, Journey, Discovery

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• If you love someone, you are always joined with them--in joy, in absence, in solitude, in strife.

  Rumi

  Joy, If You Love Someone, Absence

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• One needs solitude and quiet to think. The cacophony of modern culture is designed to make that impossible.

  Chris Hedges

  Thinking, Needs, Cacophony

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• Without solitude it is virtually impossible to live a spiritual life. ...We do not take the spiritual life seriously if we do not set aside some time to be with God and listen to him.

  Henri Nouwen

  Spiritual, Impossible, Ifs

  Henri J. M. Nouwen (2016). “The Spiritual Life: Eight Essential Titles by Henri Nouwen”, p.4, HarperCollins

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• Unless you really understand the water, and understand the reason for being on it, and understand the love of sailing and the feeling of quietness and solitude, you don't really belong on a boat anyway. I think Hemingway said one time that the sea is the last free place on earth.

  Humphrey Bogart

  Thinking, Sea, Water

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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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