“In solitude it is possible to love mankind; in the world, for one who knows the world, there can be nothing but secret or open war.”

“The republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

“She frowned at him. 'You are in love with solitude.'
'Is there a better cure for the world than solitude?”

Meg Rosoff (1956) American-British children's writer

“Real misanthropes are not found in solitude, but in the world; since it is experience of life, and not philosophy, which produces real hatred of mankind.”

Giacomo Leopardi (1798–1837) Italian poet, philosopher and writer

“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.”

Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) French moralist and essayist

“One can live magnificently in this world if one knows how to work and how to love.”

Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian writer

“The doors of the world are opened to people who can read.”

Ben Carson (1951) 17th and current United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; American neurosurgeon

“Open your eyes of love, and see Him who pervades this world!”

Kabir (1440–1518) Indian mystic poet

“I wanted to let the world know that no one had a perfect life, that even the people who seemed to have it all had their secrets.”

Jeannette Walls book The Glass Castle

“Winter solitude-
in a world of one colour
the sound of the wind.”

Bashō Matsuo (1644–1694) Japanese poet