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Solitude: Quotations from Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations

But little do men perceive what solitude is, and how far it extendeth. For a crowd is not company; and faces are but a gallery of pictures; and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love.— BACON — Essays. Of Friendship.

Converse with men makes sharp the glittering wit, But God to man doth speak in solitude.— JOHN STUART BLACKIE — Sonnet.

Highland Solitude. There is no such thing as solitude, nor anything that can be said to be alone and by itself, but God, who is his own circle, and can subsist by himself. C.— SIR THOMAS BROWNE — Religio Medici. Pt. II. Sec. X.

Among them, but not of them.— BYRON — Childe Harold. Canto III. St. 113.

But 'midst the crowd, the hum, the shock of men, To hear, to see, to feel, and to possess, And roam along, the world's tired denizen, With none who bless us, none whom we can bless.— BYRON — Childe Harold. Canto II. St. 26.

He enter'd in his house-his home no more, For without hearts there is no home;-and felt The solitude of passing his own door Without a welcome.— BYRON — Don Juan. Canto III. St. 52.

He makes a solitude, and calls it-peace!— BYRON — The Bride of Abydos. Canto II. St. 20.

Herself the solitary scion left Of a time-honour'd race.— BYRON — The Dream. St. 2.

In solitude, when we are least alone.— BYRON — Childe Harold. Canto III. St. 90.

This is to be alone; this, this is solitude!— BYRON — Childe Harold. Canto II. St. 26.

'Tis solitude should teach us how to die; It hath no flatterers; vanity can give No hollow aid; alone-man with his God must strive.— BYRON — Childe Harold. Canto IV. St. 33.

The world was sad! -the garden was a wild! And man, the hermit, sigh'd-till woman smiled.— CAMPBELL — Pleasures of Hope. Pt. II. Pt. II. L. 37.

He is never less at leisure than when at leisure, nor less alone than when he is alone.— CICERO — De Officiis. Bk. III. Ch. I.

Alone, alone, all, all alone, Alone on a wide, wide sea.— COLERIDGE — The Ancient Mariner. Pt. IV.

So lonely 'twas that God himself . Scarce seemed there to be.— COLERIDGE — The Ancient Mariner. Pt. VII.

How sweet, how passing sweet is solitude? But grant me still a friend in my retreat, Whom I may whisper-solitude is sweet.— COWPER — Retirement. L. 740.

I am monarch of all I survey, My right there is none to dispute, From the centre all round to the sea, I am lord of the fowl and the brute.— COWPER — Verses supposed to be written

by Alexander Selkirk. Oh, for a lodge in some vast wilderness, Some boundless contiguity of shade, Where rumour of oppression and deceit, Of unsuccessful or successful war, Might never reach me more!— COWPER — The Task. Bk. II. L. 1.

O solitude, where are the charms That sages have seen in thy face? Better dwell in the midst of alarms, Than reign in this horrible place. S.— COWPER — Verses supposed to be written

by Alexander Selkirk. Prison'd in a parlour snug and small, Like bottled wasps upon a southern wall.— COWPER — Retirement. L. 493.

Solitude is the nurse of enthusiasm, and enthusiasm is the true parent of genius. In all ages solitude has been called for-has been flown to.— ISAAC DISRAELI — Literary Character of Men of Genius. Ch. X.

There is a society in the deepest solitude.— ISAAC DISRAELI — Literary Character of Men of Genius. Ch. X.

So vain is the belief That the sequestered path has fewest flowers.— THOMAS DOUBLEDAY — Sonnet. The

Poet's Solitude. Thrice happy he, who by some shady grove, Far from the clamorous world, doth live his own; Though solitary, who is not alone, But doth converse with that eternal love. X.— DRUMMOND — Urania; or, Spiritual

Poems. We enter the world alone, we leave it alone.— FROUDE — Short Studies on Great

Subjects. Sea Studies. I was never less alone than when by myself.— GIBBON — Memoirs. Vol. I. P. 117.

Nobody with me at sea but myself.— GOLDSMITH — The Haunch of Venison.

Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife.— GRAY — Elegy in a Country Churchyard. St. 19.

O Solitude! if I must with thee dwell, Let it not be among the jumbled heap Of murky buildings: climb with me the steep,- Nature's observatory-whence the dell, In flowery slopes, its river's crystal swell, May seem a span; let me thy vigils keep 'Mongst boughs pavilion'd, where the deer's swift leap Startles the wild bee from the foxglove bell. C.— KEATS — Sonnet. O Solitude! If I Must

With Thee Dwell. Why should we faint and fear to live alone, Since all alone, so Heaven has willed, we die, Nor even the tenderest heart and next our own Knows half the reasons why we smile and sigh.— KEBLE — The Christian Year.

Twenty-Fourth Sunday after Trinity. Solitude is as needful to the imagination as society is wholesome for the character.— LOWELL — Among my Books. Dryden.

Alone!-that worn-out word, So idly spoken, and so coldly heard; Yet all that poets sing, and grief hath known, Of hope laid waste, knells in that word- ALONE!— BULWER-LYTTON — The New Timon. Pt. II.

And Wisdom's self Oft seeks to sweet retired solitude, Where, with her best nurse, Contemplation, She plumes her feathers, and lets grow her wings, That in the various bustle of resort Were all too ruffled, and sometimes impaired.— MILTON — Comus. L. 375.

For solitude sometimes is best society, And short retirement urges sweet return.— MILTON — Paradise Lost. Bk. IX. L. 249.

Until I truly loved, I was alone.— MRS. NORTON — The Lady of La Garaye. Pt. II. L. 381.

Far in a wild, unknown to public view, From youth to age a reverend hermit grew; The moss his bed, the cave his humble cell, His food the fruits, his drink the crystal well, Remote from man, with God he pass'd the days; Prayer all his business, all his pleasure praise.— PARNELL — The Hermit.

Whosoever is delighted in solitude, is either a wild beast or a god.— PLATO — Protag. I. 337.

Shall I, like an hermit, dwell On a rock or in a cell? See— SIR WALTER RALEIGH — Poem. See CAYLEY'S Life of Raleigh. Vol. I.

Then never less alone than when alone.— SAM'L ROGERS — Human Life. L. 759.

When, musing on companions gone, We doubly feel ourselves alone. ScoTT-Marmion. Canto II. Introduction. I love tranquil solitude And such society As is quiet, wise, and good.— SHELLEY — Rarely, Rarely, Comest Thou.

Alone each heart must cover up its dead; Alone, through bitter toil, achieve its rest.— BAYARD TAYLOR — The Poet's Journal.

First Evening. Conclusion. 'Tis not for golden eloquence I pray, A godlike tongue to move a stony heart- Methinks it were full well to be apart In solitary uplands far away, Betwixt the blossoms of a rosy spray, Dreaming upon the wonderful sweet face Of Nature, in a wild and pathless place.— FREDERICK TENNYSON — Sonnet. From

A Treasury of English Sonnets. Edited by David M. Main. I could live in the woods with thee in sight, Where never should human foot intrude: Or with thee find light in the darkest night, And a social crowd in solitude.— TIBULLUS — Elegies. Elegy I.

Often have I sighed to measure By myself a lonely pleasure, - Sighed to think I read a book, Only read, perhaps, by me.— WORDSWORTH — To the Small Celandine.

S. O! lost to virtue, lost to manly thought, Lost to the noble sallies of the soul! Who think it solitude to be alone.— YOUNG — Night Thoughts. Night III. L. 6.

O sacred solitude! divine retreat! Choice of the prudent! envy of the great, By thy pure stream, or in thy waving shade, We court fair wisdom, that celestial maid.— YOUNG — Love of Fame. Satire V. L. 254.

This sacred shade and solitude, what is it? 'Tis the felt presence of the Deity, Few are the faults we flatter when alone.— YOUNG — Night Thoughts. Night V. L. 172.

Wer sich der Einsamkeit ergiebt, Ach! der ist bald allein. Whoever gives himself up to solitude, Ah! he is soon alone.— GOETHE — - Wilhelm Meister. II. 13.