“Solitude gives an I. I that gives solitude. It is in our thoughts, and the one the world gives, in our feelings. Because solitude grows accustomed to seeing, to contemplating; and the world, to acting for itself.”
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Joseph Joubert253
French moralist and essayist 1754–1824Related quotes
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
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Context: In the world of the dreamer there was solitude: all the exaltations and joys came in the moment of preparation for living. They took place in solitude. But with action came anxiety, and the sense of insuperable effort made to match the dream, and with it came weariness, discouragement, and the flight into solitude again. And then in solitude, in the opium den of remembrance, the possibility of pleasure again.
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Source: Deals with the Devil, and Other Reasons to Riot