#solitude

We must become so alone, so utterly alone, that we withdraw into our innermost self. It is a way of bitter suffering. But then our solitude is overcome, we are no longer alone, for we find that our innermost self is the spirit, that it is God, the indivisible. And suddenly we find ourselves in the midst of the world, yet undisturbed by its multiplicity, for our innermost soul we know ourselves to be one with all being. ↗

— Hermann Hesse

#solitude #spirit #alone

Solitude has soft, silky hands, but with strong fingers it grasps the heart and makes it ache with sorrow. ↗

— Kahlil Gibran

#solitude #sorrow #strong

The truth is, we value your company, for want of any other. We have been left so much to our own devices—after a while one welcomes the uncertainty of being left to other people's. ↗

— Tom Stoppard

#truth #uncertainty

Work is not always required. There is such a thing as sacred idleness. ↗

— George MacDonald

#meditation #solitude #mac

But there is greater comfort in the substance of silence than in the answer to a question. ↗

— Thomas Merton

#enquiry #silence #solitude #solitude

You'll get used to it. In the end you won't even notice it anymore," he said. "How is that possible? It will always be there, right before my eyes." "Exactly," said Mattia. "Which is precisely why you won't see it anymore. ↗

— Paolo Giordano

#the-solitute-of-prime-numbers #solitude

…my Solitude is my Treasure, the best thing I have. ↗

— A.S. Byatt

#solitude #solitude

I have never found a companion that was so companionable as solitude. ↗

— Henry David Thoreau

#company #privacy #solitude #solitude

Whosoever is delighted in solitude, is either a wild beast or a god. ↗

— Aristotle

#solitude

To be left alone is the most precious thing one can ask of the modern world. ↗