“She naturally loved solitary places, vast views, and to feel herself for ever and ever and ever alone.”
—Virginia Woolf, from Orlando
“You should never be here too much; be so far away that they can’t find you, they can’t get at you to shape, to mould. Be so far away, like the mountains, like the unpolluted air; be so far away that you have no parents, no relations, no family, no country; be so far away that you don’t know even where you are. Keep far away; keep a distance which can never be crossed over; keep a passage open always through which no one can come. Don’t let them find you; don’t come into contact with them too closely. You should never be here too much, be so far away that even you cannot find yourself.”
—Jiddu Krishnamurti, from Keep Far Away
“Understand, I’ll slip quietly away from the noisy crowd when I see the pale stars rising, blooming, over the oaks. I’ll pursue solitary pathways through the pale twilit meadows, with only this one dream: You come too.”
—Rainer Maria Rilke, from Pathways
“A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to have it done to them; then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books, music, love for one's neighbor — such is my idea of happiness.”
—Leo Tolstoy; Family Happiness
“Loneliness is the human condition. Cultivate it. The way it tunnels into you allows your soul room to grow. Never expect to outgrow loneliness. Never hope to find people who will understand you, someone to fill that space. An intelligent, sensitive person is the exception, the very great exception. If you expect to find people who will understand you, you will grow murderous with disappointment.”
—Janet Fitch
I embrace my solitude as a beautiful gift; I will become beautiful through it!
—Susan Sontag, from Reborn: Journals and Notebooks, 1947-1963
