“The consolation of imaginary things is not imaginary consolation.”

“Stories are consoling, fiction is one of the consolation prizes for having lived in the world.”

“… imaginary things were often the only items of real substance in people's lives.”

“For those who need consolation no means of consolation is so effective as the assertion that in their case no consolation is possible: it implies so great a degree of distinction that they at once hold up their heads again.”

“Feeling does not succeed in converting consolation into truth, nor does reason succeed in converting truth into consolation.”

“Love is not consolation, it is light.”

“True friends are a consolation.”

“He did not dare to console her, knowing that it would have been like consoling a tiger run thru by a spear.”

“Distraction is the only thing that consoles us for miseries and yet it is itself the greatest of our miseries.”

“It's practically my subject, my theme: solitude and community; the weirdness and terrors of solitude: the stifling and consolations of community. Also, the consolations of solitude.”