Alone Quotes
Byron, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Emil Cioran, Edward Young and Wordsworth lead. Edward Gibbon’s Memoirs (1796) supplies the sentence that sums up the page: he was never less alone than when by himself. Shelley, in 1821, loves tranquil solitude and such society as is quiet, wise and good, and Pope’s Ode on Solitude wants a few paternal acres and the air of one’s own ground.
Three entries are flagged. “Solitude is the mother of anxieties,” credited to Publilius Syrus, is disputed. A passage about sitting and thinking in solitude to the music of the stream and the cedar, credited to John Muir, is marked misattributed, and the note points to a Sierra Club page on Muir misquotes. “Solitude is fine, but you need someone to tell you that solitude is fine” is credited to Balzac and marked misattributed.
There was room for repentance and solitude; room for good living and company.
Solitude and nature are absolutely necessary for the proper development of a human being.
The two conditions that lead others to languor – i.e. leisure and solitude – him made sharper.
In my solitude I sing to myself a sweet lullaby, as sweet as my mother used to sing to me.
Solitude is good, desolation is bad. I have experienced both.