CURATED COLLECTION

The Value of Solitude

Alone is not the same as lonely — and the best minds have always known that silence is a resource.

50 quotes found

“
A writer must have a place to write, a pen, paper, a table, and solitude.

—Ursula K. Le GuinAuthor

Late Modern ERA • North America

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Solitude is not loneliness. Loneliness is a wound. Solitude is a choice.

—Magda SzabóNovelist & Poet

Late Modern ERA • Eastern Europe

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Solitude is the medicine of the soul, and the food of the mind.

—Francesco PetrarchScholar & Poet

Renaissance ERA • Southern Europe

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Solitude is the profoundest fact of the human condition.

—Octavio PazPoet, Diplomat & Essayist

Post-War ERA • Latin America

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A man who is alone is always in good company.

—Knut HamsunNovelist

Industrial Age ERA • Nordic

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The desert is the mirror in which God shows man his soul.

—Ibrahim al-KoniNovelist

Late Modern ERA • North Africa

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To tell a story, one has to tell it in silence, in solitude.

—Valeria LuiselliAuthor & Essayist

Digital Age ERA • Latin America

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He who desires to rule must be able to rule alone.

—Niccolò MachiavelliDiplomat, Historian & Philosopher

Renaissance ERA • Southern Europe

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I have to be alone very often. I'd be quite happy if I spent from Saturday night until Monday morning alone in my apartment.

—Audrey HepburnActress & Humanitarian

Post-War ERA • Western Europe

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Silence is a state of being, not an absence of sound.

—Osip MandelstamPoet

Early Modern ERA • Eastern Europe

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I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.

—Sylvia PlathPoet & Novelist

Post-War ERA • North America

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We live, in fact, in a world starved for solitude, silence, and private: and therefore starved for meditation and true friendship.

—C.S. LewisWriter & Theologian

Early Modern ERA • Western Europe

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Solitude is the profoundest fact of the human condition. Man is the only being who knows he is alone.

—Octavio PazPoet, Diplomat & Essayist

Post-War ERA • Latin America

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The deepest loneliness is not found in solitude, but within a indifferent crowd.

—Carmen NaranjoPoet & Novelist

Post-War ERA • Central America

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We must reserve a back shop all our own, entirely free, in which to establish our true liberty.

—Michel de MontaignePhilosopher & Writer

Renaissance ERA • Western Europe

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Whoever reaches Cold Mountain is freed from all care.

—Han ShanPoet

Medieval ERA • East Asia

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Life is a journey, not a home; a road, not a city of habitation.

—Olive SchreinerNovelist, Feminist & Activist

Industrial Age ERA • Southern Africa

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Solitude is fine but you need someone to tell that solitude is fine.

—Honoré de BalzacNovelist

Industrial Age ERA • Western Europe

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A cup of wine, under the flowering trees; I drink alone, no friend nearby.

—Li BaiPoet

Medieval ERA • East Asia

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To be a leader, you must have the courage to stand alone.

—Sarojini NaiduPoet & Activist

Early Modern ERA • South Asia

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