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Quote by Colm Tóibín

“He had grown fat on solitude, he thought, and had learned to expect nothing from the day but at best a dull contentment. Sometimes the dullness came to the fore with a strange and insistent ache which he would entertain briefly, but learn to keep at bay. Mostly, however, it was the contentment he entertained; the slow ease and the silence could, once night had fallen, fill him with a happiness that nothing, no society nor the company of any individual, no glamour or glitter, could equal.”

Quote by Colm Tóibín

Work

The Master

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Author

Colm Tóibín

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“I find beauty in sadness, and peace... and a mystery waiting to be solved.. the more you unfold the mystery, the more you are mesmerized by the layers of mystery lying underneath.. and solitude becomes the perfect company for sadness.. but again, the feeling you get when you realize you're not alone gives you inexplicable happiness.. and there's satisfaction in happiness,, and another mystery which is unknotted yet difficult to penetrate”

“Самотата е най-основното човешко състояние. Не съм сигурен, че винаги бих го казал това, но в момента това бих казал. Самотата води човек напред, ‘щото е ебати шибаният стимул – да бъде сред хора, да не бъде сам, да успява, да бъде по-добро себе си. (...) Интимността е… интимност. Интимността е необходимост, интимността е желание за премахване на самотата, интимността е преодоляване на страхове, прегради, нЕ‘кви такива неща. Корелацията между двете е, че интимността е антипод на самотата, когато става въпрос за двама човека, макар при интимни отношения човек пак да може да е самотен, ‚ма тогава вече влизаме в напълно различен филм. Ебали го? Имаше ли логика т‘ва, което казах?”

“Solitude is the furnace of transformation. Without solitude we remain victims of our society and continue to be entangled in the illusions of the false self. Jesus himself entered into this furnace. There he was tempted with the three compulsions of the world: to be relevant ('turn stones into loaves'), to be spectacular ('throw yourself down'), and to be powerful ('I will give you all these kingdoms'). There he affirmed God as the only source of his identity ('You must worship the Lord your God and serve him alone'). Solitude is the place of the great struggle and the great encounter - the struggle against the compulsions of the false self, and the encounter with the loving God who offers himself as the substance of the new self.”