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Isolation Quotes

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Isolation Quotes

“It is on the consciousness level of the heart that we begin to understand that we are not separated from life. We begin to understand that we are not small separate islands in a great ocean, but that life is one and that we all are small parts of the Whole. We begin to understand what is really important and meaningful in life. It is on the consciousness level of the heart that we begin to understand that life is about sharing, rather than hoarding. We begin to understand that life is about giving, rather than taking. Above the consciousness level of the heart, we need a teacher and a guide. It is somebody who “knows”, who has walked further on the path than us and who can guide, encourage and inspire us. There is an Indian saying: “When the disciple is ready, the teacher occurs.”

“Isolation, I was reminded again and again, is a danger. But what if one's real context is in books? Some days, going from one book to another, preoccupied with thoughts that were of no importance, I would feel a rare moment of serenity: all that could not be solved in my life was merely a trifle as long as I kept it at a distance. Between that suspended life and myself were these dead people and imagined characters. One could spend one's days among them as a child arranges a circle of stuffed animals when the darkness of night closes in.”

“I learned to be silent but strong. I made myself invisible and never questioned my ability to survive alone. In the end, that was most damaging. Doing it alone. Believing it was all my responsibility. Not the assault. But the healing. The justice. The protection of nameless other girls. I leaned heavily into the skills I learned as a child, over responsibility, independence, sharp analysis, and self-sacrifice. Which meant I never asked for the support I was so desperate for. Because what I needed, maybe more than his apology, was a community of people who could help me hold and honor all the stories that led to this one, who could help me uproot the layers of silence learned through too much violence.”

“Ich habe viel Zeit in den Kellergewölben verbracht, nicht aus Überdruß an der Sonne oder plein air, ich verlor nur die Kontrolle über die Stunden und über das Leben, wenn ich mich so ausdrücken darf; ich verzichtete auf jene starren Definitionen des täglichen Lebens, die es erlauben, der natürlichen Wärme zu folgen oder einfach von der Sonne und den Elementen abzuhängen; ich lag oder ich stand aufrecht, oder ich lehnte nur an einer Wand in diesen feuchten Zimmern, den Schlafsälen meiner Ware, die emsig hin und her ging, die Blicke nach oben, zu den Gittern gerichtet. Zwischen Spaten, Trophäen und Splittern im Marmorabfall stehen die tönernen Gäste, die Schlingen knüpfen aus Schlaf, als wären es Mechelner Spitzen, sie segeln über die Wände, springen wir Kautschuk auf die Stufen aus Staub, steigen nach oben, zum Licht, sie steigen umsonst, gelangen zu nichts, nicht einmal zur Seligkeit oder zur Erschöpfung der Verzweiflung. Und wie in den Märchen kehrte ich nach oben zurück, schwer an Jahren.”

“Our fear originates on a completely different level -that of the failure of the Grand Narrative of our society. This is the narrative of mechanistic science, in which man is reduced to a biological organism. A narrative that ignores the psychological, symbolic, and ethical dimensions of human beings and thereby has a devastating effect at the level of human relationships. Something in this narrative causes man to become isolated from his fellow man, and from nature; something in it causes man to stop resonating with the world around him; something in it turns the human being into an atomized subject.”

“Well, it’s something I never felt before I joined up,” he said, returning to his slow careful manner. “But coming back this time, I’ve felt it all right. [Farming] seems to cut you off too much. After a time, if you don’t look out, you don’t seem to care what’s happening to other people. You aren’t part of anything. You’re out for yourself – and just your family. Mind you, it’s easy to feel like that – because you have to work hard and it takes nearly all your time—and you don’t meet many people who are doing different jobs, the way you do in towns. But it’s not right somehow. It shouldn’t be like that. We’ve had enough of that.”

“Being with Karen had made him realize how much the past few days (rather, nights) had changed him. He had always been a loner, but on those nights when he had been Don Juan and Casanova, and yes, de Sade, too, sex was better than it had ever been before. That was what frightened him. for he knew those nights were only masturbatory fantasies that pulled him inward, toward the self, barring the rest of humanity from his life. And he knew that if it continued, it would be harder and harder to return, and ultimately he would want to stay in the dreams forever.”

“It is an absolute human certainty that no one can know his own beauty or perceive a sense of his own worth until it has been reflected back to him in the mirror of another loving, caring human being.”

“Prisons by Stewart Stafford There are prisons of bars and jailers, There are dungeons of the mind, And of family blackmailers. Some sit manacled in a marriage cell, Thunderous isolation next door, All aflame in loveless hell. Misery, with no parole in poverty's trap, While in privileged ivory towers nearby, Elite confinement in luxury's lap. Inmates break free to a new golden age, Other jailbirds await merciful luck, Destined never to escape the cage. © Stewart Stafford, 2022. All rights reserved.”