…no matter what they tell you, it’s not because they enjoy solitude. It’s because they have tried to blend into the world before, and people continue to disappoint them.
― Jodi Picoult, My Sister’s Keeper
![](https://solitude.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/alone-in-the-snow-1528107-1598x1115.jpg)
Similar Posts
![The Infinite](https://solitude.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/delicate-arch-night-stars-landscape-768x512.jpg)
The Infinite
It was always dear to me, this solitary hill, and this hedgerow here, that closes out my view, from so much of the ultimate horizon. But sitting here, and watching here, in thought, I create interminable spaces, greater than human silences, and deepest quiet, where the heart barely fails to terrify. When I hear the…
![For now she need not think of anybody](https://solitude.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/sea-dawn-sunset-cloudy_min-768x512.jpg)
For now she need not think of anybody
She could be herself, by herself. And that was what now she often felt the need of – to think; well not even to think. To be silent; to be alone. All the being and the doing, expansive, glittering, vocal, evaporated; and one shrunk, with a sense of solemnity, to being oneself, a wedge-shaped core…
![I suffer from life and from other people](https://solitude.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/city-cars-traffic-lights_min-768x511.jpg)
I suffer from life and from other people
I can’t look at reality face to face. Even the sun discourages and depresses me. Only at night and all alone, withdrawn, forgotten and lost, with no connection to anything real or useful — only then do I find myself and feel comforted.” ― Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet
![If you are alone you belong entirely to yourself](https://solitude.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/pexels-photo-50660_min-768x512.jpg)
If you are alone you belong entirely to yourself
If you are accompanied by even one companion you belong only half to yourself or even less in proportion to the thoughtlessness of his conduct and if you have more than one companion you will fall more deeply into the same plight.” ― Leonardo da Vinci
![Why are we such tortured human beings](https://solitude.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/sunset-bird-sunrise-animal-768x513.jpg)
Why are we such tortured human beings
…, with tears in our eyes and false laughter on our lips? If you could walk alone among those hills or in the woods or along the long, white, bleached sands, in that solitude you would know what meditation is. The ecstasy of solitude comes when you are not frightened to be alone no longer…
![I am too alone in the world, …](https://solitude.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/inspiration-again-1383695-768x576.jpg)
I am too alone in the world, …
…and yet not alone enough to make every moment holy. I am too tiny in this world, and not tiny enough just to lie before you like a thing, shrewd and secretive. I want my own will, and I want simply to be with my will, as it goes toward action; and in those quiet,…