With some people solitariness is an escape not from others but from themselves. For they see in the eyes of others only a reflection of themselves.
Interpretation
Some people seek solitude to avoid facing their own inner selves, perceiving others only as mirrors of their own identity.
This quote reflects the idea that for some individuals, being alone is not merely a desire to distance themselves from others, but rather a means of escaping from their own thoughts and feelings. They rely on the perceptions of others to define their self-worth and identity, and in the absence of those external reflections, they may confront uncomfortable truths about who they are. This suggests a profound connection between solitude, self-awareness, and the dependence on social validation.
In practice
In a motivational speech about self-discovery, this quote can emphasize the importance of understanding oneself.
Language was invented to ask questions. Answers may be given by grunts and gestures, but questions must be spoken. Humanness came of age when man asked the first question. Social stagnation results not from a lack of answers but from the absence of the impulse to ask questions.
Faith in humanity, in posterity, in the destiny of one's religion, nation, race, party or family-what is it but the visualization of that eternal something to which we attach the self that is about to be annihilated?
You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.
Our frustration is greater when we have much and want more than when we have nothing and want some. We are less dissatisfied when we lack many things than when we seem to lack but one thing.
Our credulity is greatest concerning the things we know least about.
Perhaps a modern society can remain stable only by eliminating adolescence, by giving its young, from the age of ten, the skills, responsibilities, and rewards of grownups, and opportunities for action in all spheres of life. Adolescence should be a time of useful action, while book learning and scholarship should be a preoccupation of adults.
Swans sing before they die - 'twere no bad thing should certain persons die before they sing.
It was when I realised I had a new nationality: I was in exile. I am an adulterous resident: when I am in one city, I am dreaming of the other. I am an exile; citizen of the country of longing.
... The idea of God, as meaning an infinitely intelligent, wise and good Being, arises from reflecting on the operations of our own mind, and augmenting, without limit, those qualities of goodness and wisdom.
And so they are ever returning to us, the dead.
Thinking about time is to acknowledge two contradictory certainties: that our outward lives are governed by the seasons and the clock; that our inward lives are governed by something much less regular-an imaginative impulse cutting through the dictates of daily time, and leaving us free to ignore the boundaries of here and now and pass like lightning along the coil of pure time, that is, the circle of the universe and whatever it does or does not contain.
It requires an effort of logical acrobatics to believe that carnage of innocents is an instrument for freedom and elections are a symbol of deception and repression!
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