Solitude

I enjoy being alone, and these quotes describe this need more eloquently than I ever could.


I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.  We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers.  ~Henry David Thoreau, "Solitude," Walden, 1854


Language... has created the word "loneliness" to express the pain of being alone.  And it has created the word "solitude" to express the glory of being alone.  ~Paul Johannes Tillich, The Eternal Now


What a commentary on civilization, when being alone is being suspect; when one has to apologize for it, make excuses, hide the fact that one practices it - like a secret vice.  ~Anne Morrow Lindbergh


With some people solitariness is an escape not from others but from themselves.  For they see in the eyes of others only a reflection of themselves.  ~Eric Hoffer


Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul.  ~Marcus Aurelius


Loneliness can be conquered only by those who can bear solitude.  ~Paul Tillich


I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion.  ~Henry David Thoreau


And my personal favorite...


When we cannot bear to be alone, it means we do not properly value the only companion we will have from birth to death - ourselves.  ~Eda LeShan