“Solitude is as needful to the imagination as society is wholesome for the character.”

— James Russell Lowell

Dryden
Literary Essays, vol. III (1870-1890)

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James Russell Lowell 175

American poet, critic, editor, and diplomat 1819–1891

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“Solitude is fine, but you need someone to tell you that solitude is fine.”

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La solitude est certainement une belle chose, mais il y a plaisir d'avoir quelqu'un qui sache répondre, à qui on puisse dire de temps en temps, que c'est un belle chose. (Solitude is certainly a fine thing; but there is pleasure in having someone who can answer, from time to time, that it is a fine thing.) —Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac, Dissertations chrétiennes et morales (1665), XVIII: "Les plaisirs de la vie retirée".
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