Quotes about solitude

"Solitude is dangerous to reason, without being favorable to virtue. Remember that the solitary mortal is certainly luxurious, probably superstitious, and possibly mad."

Johnson, Samuel on solitude
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"If you are idle, be not solitary; if you are solitary, be not idle."

Johnson, Samuel on solitude
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"Solitude is un-American."

Jong, Erica on solitude   

"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
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"O Solitude! If I must with thee dwell, Let it not be among the jumbled heap of murky buildings"

Keats, John on solitude   

"The thoughtful soul to solitude retires."

Khayyam, Omar on solitude
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"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
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"Solitude: a sweet absence of looks."

Kundera, Milan on solitude
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"A solitude is the audience-chamber of God."

Landor, Walter Savage on solitude   

"Ships that pass in the night, and speak each other in passing, only a signal shown, and a distant voice in the darkness; So on the ocean of life, we pass and speak one another, only a look and a voice, then darkness again and a silence."

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth on solitude
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"Solitude is as needed to the imagination as society is wholesome to the character."

Lowell, James Russell on solitude
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"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
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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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"Two Paradises t'were in one, to live in Paradise alone."

Marvell, Andrew on solitude   

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

Mathews, William on solitude
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"An artist is always alone -- if he is an artist. No, what the artist needs is loneliness."

Miller, Henry on solitude
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"What call thou solitude? Is not the earth with various living creatures, and the air replenished, and all these at thy command to come and play before thee?"

Milton, John on solitude   

"Solitude begets whimsies."

Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley on solitude   

"Well has he lived who has lived well in obscurity."

Ovid 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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"Life without a friend is death without a witness."

Proverb, Spanish on solitude
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"Solitude, though it may be silent as light, is like light, the mightiest of agencies; for solitude is essential to man. All men come into this world alone and leave it alone."

Quincey, Thomas De on solitude
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"If you are afraid of being lonely, don't try to be right."

Renard, Jules on solitude
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"We are all prone to the malady of the introvert who, with the manifold spectacle of the world spread out before him, turns away and gazes only upon the emptiness within. But let us not imagine there is anything grand about the introvert's unhappiness."

Russell, Bertrand on solitude   

"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
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"The strong man is strongest when alone."

Schiller, Johann Friedrich Von 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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"Solitude cherishes great virtues and destroys little ones."

Smith, Sydney on solitude
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"One can acquire everything in solitude except character."

Stendhal, Henri B. on solitude   

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

Sterne, Laurence on solitude
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"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
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"I have never found a companion so companionable as solitude."

Thoreau, Henry David on solitude
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"I would rather sit on a pumpkin, and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion."

Thoreau, Henry David on solitude
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"If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment."

Thoreau, Henry David on solitude   

"Solitude is the despair of fools, the torment of the wicked, and the joy of the good."

Unknown, Source on solitude
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"May God be gracious to each lonely one who walks in silence towards the setting sun."

Unknown, Source on solitude   

"You have already failed if you need a lot of inspectors."

Unknown, Source on solitude   

"In solitude we are in the presence of mere matter (even the sky, the stars, the moon, trees in blossom), things of less value (perhaps) than a human spirit. Its value lies in the greater possibility of attention."

Weil, Simone on solitude   

"Go away, I'm all right!"

Wells, H.G. on solitude   

"When from our better selves we have too long been parted by the hurrying world, and droop. Sick of its business, of its pleasures tired, how gracious, how benign in solitude."

Wordsworth, William on solitude