#solitude

The soul that sees beauty may sometimes walk alone.

A man can be himself only so long as he is alone.

When you have closed your doors and made all dark within, remember never to say that you are alone, for you are not alone; God is within, and your genius is within.

Other people are bright and confident; I alone seem dim and bewildered. Other people are clever and purposeful; I alone seem dull and clumsy.

Before the universe was created, there was something formless and perfect. It was pure, deep, solitary, and unchanging.

In loneliness, the lonely one eats himself; in a crowd, the many eat him. Now choose.

Flee, my friend, into your solitude! I see you stung by poisonous flies. Flee where a rough, strong breeze blows!

Can you be your own judge and the avenger of your own law? Terrible is it to be alone with the judge and the avenger of one's own law.

In the end, one experiences only oneself.

To live alone one must be a beast or a god, says Aristotle. Leaving out the third case: one must be both—a philosopher.

To endure my solitude I was in need of war; I had to force myself into the open, to defend myself.

We must be able to stand alone before we can truly stand together.

Do not let the noise of the marketplace drown the still, small voice of your inner daimonion.

He who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god.

True courage is to do without witnesses what one would be capable of doing before all the world.

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life.

Keep close to Nature's heart... and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.

Solitude is rich; loneliness is poor.

Walk alone in your truth, and you will never be lost.

Let your mind dwell in peaceful seclusion.

To be great is to be misunderstood.

In the woods, we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life—no disgrace, no calamity—which nature cannot repair.

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

Solitude is impracticable, and society fatal. We must keep our head in the one and our hands in the other.

There are voices which we hear in solitude, but they grow faint and inaudible as we enter into the world.

Live quietly in the hollow of the ancient tree; drink the dew of early morning; have no regard for worldly praise.

In the midst of bustling cities, the sage preserves a quiet forest within.

You talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts.

And when you can no longer dwell in the solitude of your heart you live in your lips, and sound is a diversion and a pastime.

Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone, even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.