Quotes About Solitude

Ellen was motionless on the sidewalk

A book, to me, is almost sacrosanct: such an individual and private thing. The reader brings his or her own history and beliefs and concerns, and reads in solitude, creating each scene from his own imagination as he does.

this talk will be a private one with Jonas.

But the bicycle stopped. It would not move. He got off and let it drop sideways into the snow. For a moment he thought how easy it would be to drop beside it himself, to let himself and Gabriel slide into the softness of snow, the darkness of night, the warm comfort of sleep.

The reader brings his or her own history and beliefs and concerns, and reads in solitude, creating each scene from his own imagination as he does.

The Receiver was the most important Elder. Jonas had never even seen him, that he knew of; someone in a position of such importance lived and worked alone.

Des said reluctantly at last, Pray to your god. He's the only other one in here besides us. Pen

antechamber with the same unsmiling abstraction.

She was alone, uninhabited, she was herself again, after five months of that strange doubled existence.

But the lonely fancy that had not fact to feed on, nor the fancy of any other for fellowship, was for its loneliness mad.

and as the sea wind blew on that high and lonely place, there began to slip away from the voter's mind the meaningless phrases that had crowded it long - thumping majority - victory in the fight - terminological inexactitudes - and the smell of paraffin lamps dangling in classrooms, and quotations taken from ancient speeches because the words were long.

The lonely fancy that had not fact to feed on, nor the fancy of any other for fellowship, was for its loneliness mad.

It is a commonplace of all religious thought, even the most primitive, that the man seeking visions and insight must go apart from his fellows and love for a time in the wilderness.

In the days of the frost seek an minor sun.

If you were alone when you were born, alone when you were dying, really absolutely alone when you were dead, why learn to be alone in between? If you had forgotten, it would quickly come back to you. Aloneness was like riding a bike. At gunpoint. With the gun in your own hand. Aloneness was the air in your tires, the wind in your hair. You didn't have to go looking for it with open arms. With open arms, you fell off the bike: I was drinking my wine too quickly.

It was not miserable - often I did not miss her at all. But there was sometimes a quick, sinking ache when I walked in the door and saw she was not there. Twice, however, I'd felt the same sinking feeling when she was.

Visit a place at night, she knew, and it was yours.

The whiskey was going down sweet.  That was what happened after a while, with no meal to assist — it had to do the food work on its own.  There.  We talked about death. That's talking about death?

Blank is to heartache as forest is to bench.

I was given a room overlooking Constitution Island. The shutters kept out nearly all the starlight and moonlight—sleeping was a dive into a pit, and the sound of reveille seemed to come from a distant star. I lay there, watching the red light steal through the bottom of the shutters. The darkness felt delicious. I wondered if maybe I'd missed my true career.

A time comes when you are all alone...when you've come to the end of everything that can happen to you. It's the end of the world, even grief, your own grief, doesn't answer you anymore, and you have to retrace your steps, to go back among people, it makes no difference who.

Voltei só para mim mesmo, muito contente de ser ainda mais infeliz do que fora, porque trouxera para a minha solidão uma nova forma de angústia e qualquer coisa que se parecia a sentimento verdadeiro.

Some folks want the lights of cities, the admiration of women, and the fame that comes with success. Me, I just want the trail unwinding ahead of me, the view from the top of the ridge, and the smell of a wood-smoke fire.

Not that folks disliked me or that I ever went around being mean, but folks never did get close to me and it was most likely my fault. There was always something standoffish about me. I liked folks, but I liked the wild animals, the lonely trails, and the mountains better.