Quotes About Solitude

I am not solitary whilst I read and write, though nobody is with me. But if a man would be alone, let him look at the stars.

In the woods, we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life, — no disgrace, no calamity, (leaving me my eyes,) which nature cannot repair.

Good bye, proud world! I'm going home; Thou art not my friend, and I'm not thine

Why should I keep holiday / When other men have none? / Why but because, when these are gay, / I sit and mourn alone? / And why, when mirth unseals all tongues, / Should mine alone be dumb? / Ah! late I spoke to silent throngs, / And now their hour is come.

The soul environs itself with friends, that it may enter into a grander self-acquaintance or solitude; and it goes alone for a season, that it may exalt its conversation or society.

We must go alone. I like the silent church before the service begins, better than any preaching.

I chide society, I embrace solitude, and yet I am not so ungrateful as not to see the wise, the lovely, and the noble-minded, as from time to time they pass my gate.

Solitude is a sublime mistress but an intolerable wife

If only I have right of seeing In this wilderness of being And from the vision glorious Must come back to my lonely house.

But if a man would be alone, let him look at the stars. The rays that come from those heavenly worlds, will separate between him and what he touches. One might think the atmosphere was made transparent with this design, to give man, in the heavenly bodies, the perpetual presence of the sublime.

But how insular and pathetically solitary are all the people we know! Nor dare they tell what they think of each other when they meet in the street. We have a fine right, to be sure, to taunt men of the world with superficial and treacherous courtesies!

Then, when all is done, a person of related mind, a brother or sister by nature, comes to us so softly and easily, so nearly and intimately, as if it were the blood in our proper veins, that we feel as if some one was gone, instead of another having come; we are utterly relieved and refreshed; it is a sort of joyful solitude.

En la comunidad, es fácil vivir según ideas ajenas. En la soledad, es fácil vivir según las ideas propias. Pero solo es notable el que, en la comunidad, conseva la independencia.

We walk alone in the world. Friends, such as we desire, are dreams and fables

Do not be an unwise churl and rail at society nor so worldly wise as to condemn solitude. But use them as conditions. Be their master, not their slave. Make circumstance,—all circumstance, conform to the law of your mind. Be always a king, and not they, and nothing shall hurt you.

None of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or commanding except when he listens to this whisper which is heard by him alone

Standing on the bare ground,--my head bathed by the blithe air and uplifted into infinite space

Solitude, the safeguard of mediocrity, is to genius the stern friend, the cold, obscure shelter where moult the wings which will bear it farther than suns and stars. He who should inspire and lead his race must be defended from travelling with the souls of other men, from living, breathing, reading, and writing in the daily, time-worn yoke of their opinions.

If a person is constantly reading and absorbing the thoughts of others, their growth will be stunted. In order to fully develop, we need periods of solitude, self-inquiry, and recovery.

If thou fill thy brain with Boston and New York, with fashion and covetousness, and wilt stimulate thy jaded senses with wine and French coffee, thou shalt find no radiance of wisdom in the lonely waste of the pinewoods.

They are lonely; the spirit of their writing and conversation is lonely; they repel influences; they shun general society; they incline to shut themselves in their chamber in the house, to live in the country rather than in the town, and to find their tasks and amusements in solitude.

Silence is a solvent that destroys personality, and gives us leave to be great and universal.

Lose yourself in nature and find peace

Since I've learned to be silent, everything has come so much closer to me.