May Sarton Solitude Quotations

Solitude is one thing and loneliness is another.

There is a wilder solitude in winter When every sense is pricked alive and keen.

Life comes in clusters, clusters of solitude, then a cluster when there is hardly time to breathe.

Solitude is the salt of personhood. It brings out the authentic flavor of every experience.

Once more I realize that solitude is my element, and the reason is that extreme awareness of other people (all naturally solitary people must feel this) precludes awareness of one's self, so after a while the self no longer knows that it exists.

The value of solitude - one of its values - is, of course, that there is nothing to cushion against attacks from within, just as there is nothing to help balance at times of particular stress or depression...

I simply adore being alone - I find it a consuming thirst - and when that thirst is slaked, then I am happy.

There is no doubt that solitude is a challenge and to maintain balance within it a precarious business. But I must not forget that, for me, being with people or even with one beloved person for any length of time without solitude is even worse. I lose my center. I feel dispersed, scattered, in pieces. I must have time alone in which to mull over my encounter, and to extract its juice, its essence, to understand what has really happened to me as a consequence of it.

At any moment solitude may put on the face of loneliness.