"There is convincing evidence that the search for solitude is not a luxury but a biological need. Just as humans posses a herding instinct that keeps us close to others most of the time, we also have a conflicting drive to seek out solitude. If the distance between ourselves and others becomes too great, we experience isolation and alienation, yet if the proximity to others becomes too close, we feel smothered and trapped."

Kottler, Jeffrey on solitude
5 fans of this quote   

"Though the most beautiful creature were waiting for me at the end of a journey or a walk; though the carpet were of silk, the curtains of the morning clouds; the chairs and sofa stuffed with cygnet's down; the food manna, the wine beyond claret, the window opening on Winander Mere, I should not feel --or rather my happiness would not be so fine, as my solitude is sublime."

Keats, John on solitude
3 fans of this quote   

"The more powerful and original a mind, the more it will incline towards the religion of solitude."

Huxley, Aldous on solitude
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"True solitude is a din of birdsong, seething leaves, whirling colors, or a clamor of tracks in the snow."

Hoagland, Edward on solitude   

"By all means use sometimes to be alone. Salute thyself: see what thy soul doth wear. Dare to look in thy chest; for 'Tis thine own: And tumble up and down what thou findst there. Who cannot rest till he good fellows find, he breaks up house, turns out of doors his mind."

Herbert, George on solitude
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"The good and the wise lead quiet lives."

Euripides on solitude
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"Solitude is impractical and yet society is fatal."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on solitude
4 fans of this quote   

"Conversation enriches the understanding; but solitude is the school of genius."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on solitude
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This quotation can be viewed in the context of a book

"It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinions; it is easy in solitude to live after your own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on solitude
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"The best thinking has been done in solitude."

Edison, Thomas A. on solitude
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"A solitude is the audience-chamber of God."

Landor, Walter Savage on solitude   

"To have a quiet mind is to possess one's mind wholly; to have a calm spirit is to possess one's self."

Mabie, Hamilton on solitude
6 fans of this quote   

"I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of time. To be in company, even with the best, is soon wearisome and dissipating. I love to be alone, I never found the companionable as solitude."

Thoreau, Henry David on solitude
7 fans of this quote   

"In solitude the mind gains strength and learns to lean upon itself."

Sterne, Laurence on solitude
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"Solitude cherishes great virtues and destroys little ones."

Smith, Sydney on solitude
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"A man can be himself only so long as he is alone."

Schopenhauer, Arthur on solitude
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"The strong man is strongest when alone."

Schiller, Johann Friedrich Von on solitude
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"Shakespeare, Leonardo Da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin, and Lincoln never saw a movie, heard a radio, or looked at a TV They had loneliness and knew what to do with it. They were not afraid of being lonely because they knew that was when the creative mood in them would mark."

Sa, Carl on solitude
5 fans of this quote   

"If you are afraid of being lonely, don't try to be right."

Renard, Jules on solitude
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"One hour of thoughtful solitude may nerve the heart for days of conflict -- girding up its armor to meet the most insidious foe."

Percival, Lord on solitude
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"In the world a man lives in his own age; in solitude in all ages."

Mathews, William on solitude
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"Well has he lived who has lived well in obscurity."

Ovid on solitude
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"Solitude gives birth to the original in us, to beauty unfamiliar and perilous- to poetry. But also, it gives birth to the opposite: to the perverse, the illicit, the absurd."

Mann, Thomas on solitude
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"Alone, even doing nothing, you do not waste your time. You do, almost always, in company. No encounter with yourself can be altogether sterile: Something necessarily emerges, even if only the hope of some day meeting yourself again."

Cioran, E. M. on solitude
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"Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong."

Churchill, Winston on solitude
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"We must combine the toughness of the serpent with the softness of the dove, a tough mind and a tender heart."

King Jr. Martin Luther on mind
9 fans of this quote   

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

King Jr. Martin Luther on justice
18 fans of this quote   

"Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."

King Jr. Martin Luther on ignorance
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"Mankind must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love."

King Jr. Martin Luther on humankind
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"We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope."

King Jr. Martin Luther on hope
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"The hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict."

King Jr. Martin Luther on hell
23 fans of this quote   

"Everybody can be great... because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. you only need a heart full of grace. a soul generated by love."

King Jr. Martin Luther on greatness
13 fans of this quote   

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."

King Jr. Martin Luther on adversity
39 fans of this quote   

"Live your life, do your work, then take your hat."

Thoreau, Henry David on death
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This quotation can be viewed in the context of a book

"Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something."

Thoreau, Henry David on advice
34 fans of this quote   

"I don't believe that the big men, the politicians and the capitalists alone are guilty of the war. Oh, no, the little man is just as keen, otherwise the people of the world would have risen in revolt long ago! There is an urge and rage in people to destroy, to kill, to murder, and until all mankind, without exception, undergoes a great change, wars will be waged, everything that has been built up, cultivated and grown, will be destroyed and disfigured, after which mankind will have to begin all over again."

Frank, Anne on war   

"Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal."

King Jr. Martin Luther on peace
10 fans of this quote   

"I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. That is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant."

King Jr. Martin Luther on reality
5 fans of this quote   

"Solitude shows us what should be; society shows us what we are."

Cecil, Robert on solitude
4 fans of this quote   

"History shows that the majority of people that have done anything great have passed their youth in seclusion."

Carlyle, Thomas on solitude
7 fans of this quote