
“Solitude is painful when one is young, but delightful when one is more mature.”
"Self-Portrait" (1936), p. 5 http://books.google.com/books?id=Q1UxYzuI2oQC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA5#v=onepage&q&f=false
1950s, Out of My Later Years (1950)
Variant: I live in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity.
“Solitude is painful when one is young, but delightful when one is more mature.”
“Society is all but rude,
To this delicious solitude.”
The Garden (1650-1652)
“In my youth I committed black deeds. In maturity I practised innocence.”
As quoted in The Life of Milarepa: A New Translation from the Tibetan (1977) by Tsangnyön Heruka, as translated by Lobsang P. Lhalungpa, p. 12
Context: In my youth I committed black deeds. In maturity I practised innocence. Now, released from both good and evil, I have destroyed the root of karmic action and shall have no reason for action in the future. To say more than this would only cause weeping and laughter. What good would it do to tell you? I am an old man. Leave me in peace.
“What youth considers liberation, maturity considers tasteless excess.”
Discovering LaRochefoucauld http://www.newcriterion.com/archive/19/apr01/laroche.htm (April 2001).
New Criterion (2000 - 2005)
“My daughter gave me the chance to be more mature and live a better life after 20 years.”
Los Angeles Daily News (October 16, 2014)
from (letter 03 205) and (letter 03 147); as quoted in Otto Mueller: A Stand-Alone Modernist, Dieter W. Posselt; 2006 / new edition 2010, Books on Demand, GmbH, Norderstedt, Germany - ISBN:978-3-8448-6866-1, unpaged