Quotes About Isolation

A man may shut himself up in a dark room, and deny that the light exists, but it is everywhere without, and darkness exists only in his own little room.

Bureaucracy is a construction by which a person is conveniently separated from the consequences of his or her actions.

We are social animals; hell is other people.

The degree of randomness in such an activity and our ability to isolate the contribution of the individual determine the visibility of the skills content.

I knew I did not belong.

Being nice counts the most when you are nice to people ignored by others, deprived of attention, or devoid of friends. The rest is largely theater.

It is very difficult to isolate a single cause when there are plenty around.

and the two need to be kept separate.

He knew that he would either be fired or left alone. He was left alone.

Pavese spiegava che veniva là non per coraggio, perché lui di coraggio non ne aveva; e nemmeno per spirito di sacrificio. Veniva perché se no non avrebbe saputo come passar le serate; e non tollerava di passar le serate in solitudine.

Yo tampoco te quiero, es imposible quererte. ¿Y sabes por qué? Porque no tienes valor para ir hasta el fondo de las cosas. No eres más que un tapón de corcho, eso es lo que eres. Nadie te quiere porque tú no quieres a nadie.

Las palabras se habían ido acumulando en su interior sobre todo durante aquella última época en la que había guardado cama con la pierna enyesada fantaseando con las cartas que le llegaban de Viareggio, fumando y abanicándose apoyada en los cojines y rodeada de interlocutores imaginarios y de siluetas inciertas y cambiantes que asentían sonriendo.

Quando avevo pensato a me stessa in solitudine, mi ero trovata a volte troppo strana e sola per avere qualche diritto di vivere.

No a todo el mundo le hace bien la soledad. A ti no te hace bien porque piensas cosas absurdas. A mí, en cambio, la soledad me gusta y me hace bien.

That's what us Tucks are, Winnie. Stuck so's we can't move on. We ain't part of the wheel no more. Dropped off, Winnie. Left behind. And everywhere around us, things is moving and growing and changing.

Always moving around and never having any friends or anything.

You know how depression hits?' She takes another drag and blows the smoke out slowly. 'It's like an avalanche. No warning. You're just knocked off your feet. You reach for a ledge . . . no ledge. You reach for a branch . . . no branch. You just keep falling. When you hit the bottom, everything around you settles like concrete. You're up to your neck and you can't move. All you can do is wait.

I think poets are people who are like this; for whatever reason you feel psychological exile because you're always an outsider...

The tragic irony of people's lives (this point can hardly be stressed enough) is that the very attempt to deny aloneness results in denying love. Without an 'I' who loves, what is the meaning of love?

Self-destruction is an act best performed in the dark.

It [the scarlet letter] had the effect of a spell, taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity, and enclosing her in a sphere by herself.

The sick in mind, and, perhaps, in body, are rendered more darkly and hopelessly so by the manifold reflection of their disease, mirrored back from all quarters in the deportment of those about them; they are compelled to inhale the poison of their own breath, in infinite repetition.

The whole forest was peopled with frightful sounds--the creaking of the trees, the howling of wild beasts, and the yell of Indians; while sometimes the wind tolled like a distant church bell, and sometimes gave a broad roar around the traveler, as if all Nature were laughing him to scorn. But he was himself the chief horror of the scene, and shrank not from its other horrors.

Nothing gives a sadder sense of decay than this loss or suspension of the power to deal with unaccustomed things, and to keep up with the swiftness of the passing moment. [Speaking of self-posed isolation in old age.]