It's an interesting combination: Having a great fear of being alone, and having a desperate need for solitude and the solitary experience. That's always been a tug of war for me.
Unlike a drop of water which loses its identity when it joins the ocean, man does not lose his being in the society in which he lives. Man's life is independent. He is born not for the development of the society alone, but for the development of his self.
Still and all, why bother? Here's my answer. Many people need desperately to receive this message: I feel and think much as you do, care about many of the things you care about, although most people do not care about them. You are not alone.
When so many are lonely as seem to be lonely, it would be inexcusably selfish to be lonely alone.
You come into the world alone and you go out of the world alone yet it seems to me you are more alone while living than even going and coming.
I've also seen that great men are often lonely. This is understandable, because they have built such high standards for themselves that they often feel alone. But that same loneliness is part of their ability to create.
In Genesis, it says that it is not good for a man to be alone but sometimes it is a great relief.
There's a tremendous difference between alone and lonely. You could be lonely in a group of people. I like being alone. I like eating by myself. I go home at night and just watch a movie or hang out with my dog. I have to exert myself and really say, oh God, I've got to see my friends 'cause I'm too content being by myself.
I really enjoy being single again. I spent a lot of time in a relationship and the nearer we came to the end, the more difficult it got. You don't see things clearly as long as you're still involved.
The best part about being alone is that you really don't have to answer to anybody. You do what you want.
The desire to get married, which - I regret to say, I believe is basic and primal in women - is followed almost immediately by an equally basic and primal urge - which is to be single again.
Who knows what true loneliness is - not the conventional word but the naked terror? To the lonely themselves it wears a mask. The most miserable outcast hugs some memory or some illusion.
The capacity for not feeling lonely can carry a very real price, that of feeling nothing at all.
Always give a word or sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, or even a stranger, if in a lonely place.
To dare to live alone is the rarest courage since there are many who had rather meet their bitterest enemy in the field, than their own hearts in their closet.
Alone let him constantly meditate in solitude on that which is salutary for his soul, for he who meditates in solitude attains supreme bliss.
I never said, 'I want to be alone.' I only said, 'I want to be left alone.' There is all the difference.
I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone, because I am the person I know best.
I'm fascinated with myself and love hearing the sound of my own voice. I'd like to hear what I have to say. A lot of people don't like being alone because they truly don't like themselves, but I love me.
He that can live alone resembles the brute beast in nothing, the sage in much, and God in everything.
Solitude is the profoundest fact of the human condition. Man is the only being who knows he is alone.
Inside myself is a place where I live all alone and that is where I renew my springs that never dry up.