QuoteProject
I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time. To be in company, even with the best, is soon wearisome and dissipating. I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.
Henry David Thoreau
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Thoreau expresses the value and comfort he finds in solitude over social company.

In this quote, Henry David Thoreau emphasizes the significance of solitude in one's life. He suggests that while companionship can be enjoyable, it often leads to weariness and distractions. Thoreau argues that solitude is not only a refuge but also a more profound and fulfilling form of companionship. His reflection highlights the importance of self-discovery and personal peace that can be achieved through spending time alone.

Themes

SolitudeCompanionshipSelf-DiscoveryPeaceLoneliness

In practice

Example use cases

During a motivational speech about the importance of self-reflection and solitude.

More from Henry David Thoreau

None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.
Henry David ThoreauRead
Through want of enterprise and faith men are where they are, buying and selling and spending their lives like servants.
Henry David ThoreauRead
An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.
Henry David ThoreauRead
Have no mean hours, but be grateful for every hour, and accept what it brings. The reality will make any sincere record respectable.
Henry David ThoreauRead
As every season seems best to us in its turn, so the coming in of spring is like the creation of Cosmos out of Chaos and the realization of the Golden Age.
Henry David ThoreauRead
That grand old poem called Winter
Henry David ThoreauRead

Similar quotes

Being good is easy, what is difficult is being just.
Victor HugoRead
... at the beginning of the human race the woman was made of a rib taken from the side of the man while he slept; for it seemed fit that even then Christ and His Church should be foreshadowed in this event. For that sleep of the man was the death of Christ, whose side, as He hung lifeless upon the Cross, was pierced with a spear, and there flowed from it blood and water, and these we know to be the sacraments by which the Church is built up.
Saint AugustineRead
It is indeed a desirable thing to be well-descended, but the glory belongs to our ancestors.
PlutarchRead
Start seeing everything as God, But keep it a secret
HafezRead
Concerning God, freewill and destiny: Of all that earth has been or yet may be, all that vain men imagine or believe, or hope can paint or suffering may achieve, we descanted.
Percy Bysshe ShelleyRead
Each human being has the eternal duty of turning what is hard and brutal into_x000D_ a tender and subtle offering, what is crude into an object of refinement, what_x000D_ is ugly into a thing of beauty, confrontation into collaboration, ignorance into_x000D_ knowledge, hereby rediscovering the child's dream of a creative reality_x000D_ incessantly renewed by death, the servant of life, and by life the servant of love
Yehudi MenuhinRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.