21 verified quotes from 17 writers, c. AD 125 to 1923.
Thoreau, who built a cabin by Walden Pond, said he never found a companion as companionable as solitude, yet kept three chairs in his house: one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society. Emerson adds that the great man is the one who keeps the independence of solitude in the middle of the crowd.
The quotes here treat being alone as a place to think rather than a punishment: a walk taken without company, a night spent looking up at the stars, a soul that chooses its own society. Each was matched word for word in the full text of the public-domain edition we link, with a note of ours on where it comes from.
What “verified” means, and what we leave out: How we verify.
Immediately prescribe some character and some form to yourself, which you shall observe both when you are alone and when you meet with men.
Our note: A rule of conduct that should hold the same whether or not anyone is watching.
Verified in the full text of The Encheiridion on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #10661 · Collected in A Selection from the Discourses of Epictetus with the Encheiridion
It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.
Our note: From "Self-Reliance."
Verified in the full text of Self-Reliance on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #2944 · Collected in Essays, First Series
Painted the same decade: Study of a Female Nude, Henri Lehmann, 1840
I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself
Our note: Jane, deciding to leave Thornfield rather than stay on Rochester's terms.
Verified in the full text of Jane Eyre on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #1260
Painted the same decade: The Abduction of Rebecca, Eugène Delacroix, 1846
I can live alone, if self-respect, and circumstances require me so to do.
Our note: Rochester, disguised as a fortune-teller, reading what Jane's face seems to say about her.
Verified in the full text of Jane Eyre on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #1260
Painted the same decade: Study of a Female Nude, Henri Lehmann, 1840
In all England, I do not believe that I could have fixed on a situation so completely removed from the stir of society
Our note: Lockwood, the new tenant, on the remote moorland he has chosen.
Verified in the full text of Wuthering Heights on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #768
Painted the same decade: The Abduction of Rebecca, Eugène Delacroix, 1846
…and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss
Our note: The narrator on what shame, despair and solitude had taught Hester Prynne.
Verified in the full text of The Scarlet Letter on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #33
Painted the same decade: Scene in the Jewish Quarter of Constantine, Théodore Chassériau, 1851
…as this appalling ocean surrounds the verdant land, so in the soul of man there lies one insular Tahiti, full of peace and joy, but encompassed by all the horrors of the half known life
Our note: Ishmael in the chapter on the lee shore, on the calm island inside every person.
Verified in the full text of Moby-Dick on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #2701
Painted the same decade: Scene in the Jewish Quarter of Constantine, Théodore Chassériau, 1851
I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.
Our note: From the chapter "Solitude," on why living alone did not make him lonely.
Verified in the full text of Walden on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #205
Painted the same decade: Madame Frederic Breyer (Fanny Hélène Van Bruyssel, 1830–1894), Gustave Courbet, 1858
I had three chairs in my house; one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society.
Our note: From the chapter "Visitors," describing the furniture of his one-room cabin.
Verified in the full text of Walden on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #205
Painted the same decade: Madame Frederic Breyer (Fanny Hélène Van Bruyssel, 1830–1894), Gustave Courbet, 1858
Some keep the Sabbath going to church; I keep it staying at home, With a bobolink for a chorister, And an orchard for a dome
Our note: One of the few poems printed in her lifetime, in 1864, and reprinted in 1890.
Verified in the full text of Some keep the Sabbath going to church on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #12242 · Collected in Poems by Emily Dickinson
Painted the same decade: The Laundress, Honoré Daumier, 186[3?]
Till rising and gliding out I wander'd off by myself, In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time, Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars
Our note: The end of a short poem about leaving a lecture on the stars to go and look at them.
Verified in the full text of When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #1322 · Collected in Leaves of Grass
Painted the same decade: The Spanish Singer, Edouard Manet, 1860
A noiseless patient spider, I mark'd where on a little promontory it stood isolated
Our note: The opening of a poem that compares the soul to a spider casting out threads.
Verified in the full text of A Noiseless Patient Spider on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #1322 · Collected in Leaves of Grass
Painted the same decade: The Spanish Singer, Edouard Manet, 1860
You are the gull, Jo, strong and wild, fond of the storm and the wind, flying far out to sea, and happy all alone
Our note: Beth to Jo by the sea, in the second part of the novel.
Verified in the full text of Little Women on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #514
Painted the same decade: Young Lady in 1866, Edouard Manet, 1866
To persons standing alone on a hill during a clear midnight such as this, the roll of the world eastward is almost a palpable movement
Our note: From the novel's early night scene on Norcombe Hill, under the stars.
Verified in the full text of Far from the Madding Crowd on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #107
Painted the same decade: View of Marly-le-Roi from Coeur-Volant, Alfred Sisley, 1876
…to be properly enjoyed, a walking tour should be gone upon alone
Our note: Stevenson on why a walk is best taken without company.
Verified in the full text of Walking Tours on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #386 · Collected in Virginibus Puerisque, and Other Papers
Painted the same decade: By the Seashore, Auguste Renoir, 1883
The soul selects her own society, Then shuts the door
Our note: The opening of a poem first printed in 1890.
Verified in the full text of The soul selects her own society on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #12242 · Collected in Poems by Emily Dickinson
Painted the same decade: The Shepherd's Song, Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, 1891
The voice of the sea is seductive; never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander for a spell in abysses of solitude
Our note: A refrain of the novel, set on the Louisiana coast.
Verified in the full text of The Awakening on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #160
Painted the same decade: The Englishman (William Tom Warrener, 1861–1934) at the Moulin Rouge, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 1892
It is impossible. We live, as we dream—alone
Our note: Marlow, breaking off his story to say that no one can share another's experience.
Verified in the full text of Heart of Darkness on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #219
Painted the same decade: Serena Pulitzer Lederer (1867–1943), Gustav Klimt, 1899
He walked by himself, and all places were alike to him
Our note: The refrain of 'The Cat that Walked by Himself', about the one animal that would not be tamed.
Verified in the full text of Just So Stories on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #2781
The real loneliness is living among all these kind people who only ask one to pretend!
Our note: Ellen Olenska to Newland Archer, on returning to New York society.
Verified in the full text of The Age of Innocence on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #541
Your hearts know in silence the secrets of the days and the nights
Our note: The opening of the section on self-knowledge.
Verified in the full text of The Prophet on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #58585
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