“There was a solace in a snow-laden forest wrapped in night found nowhere else, a loneliness that made me better acquainted with myself.”
Source: A Shiver of Snow and Sky
“I told him I believed in hell, and that certain people, like me, had to live in hell before they died, to make up for missing out on it after death, since they didn't believe in life after death, and what each person believed happened to him when he died.”
Source: the bell jar
“.. Et c'était simple de lui dire de s'asseoir ; quand on pense à tout ce qu'on pourrait faire et qu'on ne fait pas ! toutes les occasions qu'on laisse échapper ! on a pas l'idée, pas l'élan ; au lieu d'être ouvert on est fermé ; c'est ça le grand péché : le péché par omission.”
Source: The Mandarins
“I decided someday to become a Thoreau of the Mountains. To live like Jesus and Thoreau, except for women.”
Source: Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg: The Letters
“Our two solitudes never quite merged, perhaps, but accepted each other gratefully.”
Source: I Knew a Phoenix: Sketches for an Autobiography
“At the memory of how tired, how embarrassed he'd been, M. Folantin considered himself lucky to be able to dine where he pleased and to spend the rest of the evening in his room; he reckoned that solitude had its advantages, that to mull over old memories and recount idle gossip to oneself was still preferable to the company of people with whom one shared neither convictions, nor sympathy; his desire to be sociable, to rub shoulders with others, evaporated and, once again, he repeated this depressing truth: that when old friends disappear, one should resolve not to look for others, but to live apart, to habituate oneself to isolation.”
Source: Downstream
“We all need the pendulum swing of snatching spaces of solitude and serving tables of sociability. In fact, the more plugged in and connected we are, the more we need to unplug and disconnect. A world of presence needs a time of absence.”
Source: The Bad Habits of Jesus: Showing Us the Way to Live Right in a World Gone Wrong
“There is a crowd of busybodies, self-appointed masters of ceremonies, whose life is devoted to destroying solitude wherever solitude still exists. They call it “taking the young people out of themselves,” or “waking them up,” or “overcoming their apathy.” If an Augustine, a Vaughan, a Traherne, or a Wordsworth should be born in the modern world, the leaders of a youth organization would soon cure him.”
Source: The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses
“As often happens with introverts who, despite having nothing against people, find the solitude of their home more comforting as opposed to the company of others, he was thought arrogant by many.”
Source: Tied to Deceit
“Je finirai seule, avec mes personnages de roman et, comme un livre, je prendrai la poussière et on m'oubliera.”
Source: La noce d'Anna