Silence is one great art of conversation.

Silence is one great art of conversation.

Absence does not make the heart grow fonder, but it sure heats up the blood.

Absence does not make the heart grow fonder, but it sure heats up the blood.

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.

One can acquire everything in solitude except character. - On Love, 1822.

One can acquire everything in solitude except character. - On Love, 1822.

Only in solitude do we find ourselves; and in finding ourselves, we find in ourselves all our brothers in solitude. read more

Only in solitude do we find ourselves; and in finding ourselves, we find in ourselves all our brothers in solitude. - Essays and Soliloquies, 1924.

The heart may think it knows better: the senses know that absence blots people out. We really have no absent read more

The heart may think it knows better: the senses know that absence blots people out. We really have no absent friends. The friend becomes a traitor by breaking, however unwillingly or sadly, out of our own zone: a hard judgment is passed on him, for all the pleas of the heart.

He that can live alone resembles the brute beast in nothing, the sage in much, and God in everything. - read more

He that can live alone resembles the brute beast in nothing, the sage in much, and God in everything. - The Art of Worldly Wisdom, 1647.

There are places and moments in which one is so completely alone that one sees the world entire. - Journal, read more

There are places and moments in which one is so completely alone that one sees the world entire. - Journal, December, 1900.