#line

There is no doubt that solitude is a challenge and to maintain balance within it a precarious business. But I must not forget that, for me, being with people or even with one beloved person for any length of time without solitude is even worse. I lose my center. I feel dispersed, scattered, in pieces. I must have time alone in which to mull over my encounter, and to extract its juice, its essence, to understand what has really happened to me as a consequence of it. ↗

— May Sarton

#lonely-loneliness #solitude #business

Being salt and light demands two things: we practice purity in the midst of a fallen world and yet we live in proximity to this fallen world. If you don't hold up both truth in tension, you invariably becomes useless and separated from the world God loves. ↗

— David Kinnaman

#worldliness #love

I have always known there is a difference between loneliness and aloneness. I am alone, but my father is lonely. And if I had to choose one, I would rather be alone. ↗

— Ted Michael

#loneliness #love

The half-moon westers low, my love, And the wind brings up the rain; And wide apart lie we, my love, And seas between the twain. I know not if it rains, my love, In the land where you do lie; And oh, so sound you sleep, my love, You know no more than I. ↗

— A.E. Housman

#love #love

[A]s though mindful of the wife of Lot, who looked back from behind him, thou deliveredst me first to the sacred garments and monastic profession before thou gavest thyself to God. And for that in this one thing thou shouldst have had little trust in me I vehemently grieved and was ashamed. For I (God [knows]) would without hesitation precede or follow thee to the Vulcanian fires according to thy word. For not with me was my heart, but with thee. But now, more than ever, if it be not with thee, it is nowhere. For without thee it cannot anywhere exist. ↗

— Héloïse d'Argenteuil

#celibacy #convent #dignity #following #grief

The more righteous God appeared, the more resentful I became. ↗

— Joni Eareckson Tada

#sin #love

Thinking there had to be a better way was a brilliant stroke of serendipity! ↗

— Lorii Myers

#business #business-start-up #business-success #customer-service #improvement

Busy with the ugliness of the expensive success We forget the easiness of free beauty Lying sad right around the corner, Only an instant removed, Unnoticed and squandered. ↗

— Dejan Stojanovic

#busy #corner #dejan-stojanovic #expensive #free

I am damned,' thinks Bunny Munro in a sudden moment of self-awareness reserved for those who are soon to die. ↗

— Nick Cave

#opening-lines #opening-sentences #death

We live as we dream--alone.... ↗

— Joseph Conrad

#loneliness #dreams