“I was never less alone than when by myself.”
Vol. i. p. 117. Compare: "Never less alone than when alone", Samuel Rogers, Human Life; "In solitude, where we are least alone", Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto III, Stanza 90.
Memoirs (1796)
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Edward Gibbon 43
English historian and Member of Parliament 1737–1794Related quotes

"On Going on a Journey"
Table Talk: Essays On Men And Manners http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Essays/TableHazIV.htm (1821-1822)

“According to Cato the Elder, Scipio Africanus was wont to say that he was never less at leisure than when at leisure, nor less alone than when alone.”
P. Scipionem [...] dicere solitum scripsit Cato [...] numquam se minus otiosum esse, quam cum otiosus; nec minus solum, quam cum solus esset.
Book III, section 1
De Officiis – On Duties (44 BC)

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 281.

“I love you much less than my God, but much more than myself.”
Je vous aime,
Beaucoup moins que mon Dieu, mais bien plus que moi-même.
Polyeucte, act IV, scene iii.
Polyeucte (1642)
“Times when I understand myself a little, I understand others less.”
Las veces que me comprendo un poco, comprendo menos a los demás.
Voces (1943)

“I had been alone more than I could have been had I gone by myself.”
Source: The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

“I restore myself when I'm alone. A career is born in public — talent in privacy.”
As quoted in Ms. magazine (August 1972) p. 40
Variant: I restore myself when I'm alone. A career is born in public — talent in privacy.