But on the first day came veiled spirits from all hours into his soul… a soft intoxication, which the atmosphere of nature, like that of a wine-store, communicated to him, spread itself, like an enchanted solitude around his soul. – Jean Paul Friedrich Richter, Hesperus, or Forty-Five Dog-Post-Days: A Biography,

The right to be alone — the most comprehensive of rights, and the right most valued by civilized man. – Louis D. Brandeis

What a commentary on civilization, when being alone is being suspect; when one has to apologize for it, make excuses, hide the fact that one practices it — like a secret vice. – Anne Morrow Lindbergh

This great misfortune — to be incapable of solitude. – Jean De La Bruyere