Solitude Quotes - Page 39

• The physical union of the sexes ... only intensifies man's sense of solitude.

  Nikolai Berdyaev

  Sex, Men, Unions

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• A WISE MAN never enjoys himself so much, or a FOOL so little, as when he is alone.

  Josh Billings

  Wise, Men, Littles

  "Wit and Wisdom of Josh Billings [pseud.]: Choice Bits of Fun and Philosophy of the Great Humorist Carefully Collected and Revised".

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• The departure from the world is regarded not as a fault, but as the first step into that noble path at the remotest turn of which illumination is to be won.

  Joseph Campbell

  Illumination, Noble, Departure

  Joseph Campbell (2008). “The Hero with a Thousand Faces”, p.142, New World Library

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• In the tumult of great events, solitude was what I hoped for. Now it is what I love. How is it possible to be contented with anything else when one has come face to face with history?

  Charles de Gaulle

  Events, Faces, Tumult

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• Solitude is naught and society is naught. Alternate them and the good of each is seen.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2004). “A Dream Too Wild: Emerson Meditations for Every Day of the Year”, Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations

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• As for solitude, I cannot understand how certain people seek to lay claim to intellectual stature, nobility of soul and strength of character, yet have not the slightest feeling for seclusion; for solitude, I maintain, when joined with a quiet contemplation of nature, a serene and conscious faith in creation and the Creator, and a few vexations from outside is the only school for a mind of lofty endowment.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Character, School, People

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1963). “Goethe's world view: presented in his reflections and maxims”

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• Deep down, Erikson wants profoundly to be respected and admired - and very deep down he wants to be left alone.

  Stanley Hoffmann

  Want, Erikson, Very Deep

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• 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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• The important thing is to know why we want to dance. We dance a solitude that we have inside us and cannot occupy with anything. This gap, that emptiness to which we put movement is the TANGO.

  Carlos Gavito

  Important, Movement, Want

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