How glorious it is -- and also how painful -- to be an exception.

How glorious it is -- and also how painful -- to be an exception.

No matter how close to yours another's steps have grown, in the end there is one dance you'll do alone.

No matter how close to yours another's steps have grown, in the end there is one dance you'll do alone.

To dare to live alone is the rarest courage; since there are many who had rather meet their bitterest enemy read more

To dare to live alone is the rarest courage; since there are many who had rather meet their bitterest enemy in the field, than their own hearts in their closet. - Lacon, 1825.

Children love to be alone because alone is where they know themselves, and where they dream. - The Man in read more

Children love to be alone because alone is where they know themselves, and where they dream. - The Man in the Water, 1994.

Oh to have a lodge in some vast wilderness. Where rumors of oppression and deceit, of unsuccessful and successful wars read more

Oh to have a lodge in some vast wilderness. Where rumors of oppression and deceit, of unsuccessful and successful wars may never reach me anymore.

Solitude is the profoundest fact of the human condition. Man is the only being who knows he is alone. - read more

Solitude is the profoundest fact of the human condition. Man is the only being who knows he is alone. - The Labyrinth of Solitude, 1950.

Regrets are idle; yet history is one long regret. Everything might have turned out so differently. - My Summer in read more

Regrets are idle; yet history is one long regret. Everything might have turned out so differently. - My Summer in a Garden.

Solitude is the playfield of Satan. - Pale Fire, 1962.

Solitude is the playfield of Satan. - Pale Fire, 1962.

Don't knock the weather; nine-tenths of the people couldn't start a conversation if it didn't change once in a while.

Don't knock the weather; nine-tenths of the people couldn't start a conversation if it didn't change once in a while.