Quotes About Solitude

I like to make a distinction between solitude and being alone. Alone signifies loneliness, whereas solitude means really connecting with yourself.

Practicing silence means making a commitment to take a certain amount of time to simply Be. Experiencing silence means periodically withdrawing from the activity of speech. It also means periodically withdrawing from such activities as watching television, listening to the radio, or reading a book. If you never give yourself the opportunity to experience silence, this creates turbulence in your internal dialogue.

Franz Kafka, the Austrian philosopher and poet, once said, "You need not leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. You need not even listen, simply wait. You need not even wait, just learn to become quiet, and still, and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked. It has no choice; it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.

The hunger to be alone, characteristic of anyone in stage four, comes from sheer suspense. The person cannot wait to find out what comes next in the unfolding of the soul's drama.

Two journeys had to be made without companions: the journey to your death and the one to enlightenment.

No one else, however much you love and adore the person, sees the true significance of your private epiphanies. The secret belongs to you, with you, in you.

But time stands still in the dark.

And this that you call solitude is in fact a big crowd.

Beyond all vanities, fights, and desires, omnipotent silence lies.

Either all lights are turned off or one inner light is missing.

Even if you are alone you wage war with yourself.

The world is a navy in an empty ocean.

We hear only our own voices, still echoes returning to our emptiness.

I think it's interesting that 'cologne' rhymes with 'alone.'

What could be lonelier than trying to communicate?

It was only when you left it alone that a tree might treat you as a friend. After the blade bit in, you had yourself a war.

He liked the grand size of things in the woods, the feeling of being lost and far away, and the sense he had that with so many trees as wardens, no danger could find him.

It was beautiful up here. Full of pine and mountain views, and the kind of quiet that made your thoughts loud.

Denise Kiernan

and nothing was burning, nothing but I

She didn't read to show off at book groups or for discussion. She never made a show of her erudition. She just liked to be lost.

When everyone you know is either very far away from you or hides, you find someone dead to love.

You don't have to go on a quest to "find" silence-it's a matter of uncovering it right where you are. Think about it: if all external and internal sounds were eliminated, only silence would remain. The question is, how much silence can you bear? How deep are you willing to go below surface living to reconnect with who you truly are?

You should carry the monastery in yourself. The desert is within you. The desert calls you and draws you back. . . . Truly, I prepare you for solitude. —C.G. Jung , The Red Book