Solitude is the profoundest fact of the human condition. Man is the only being who knows he is alone, and the only one who seeks out another. His nature - if that word can be used in reference to man, who has βinventedβ himself by saying βnoβ to nature - consists in his longing to realize himself in another. Man is nostalgia and a search for communion. Therefore, when he is aware of himself he is aware of his lack of another, that is, of his solitude. β¨ The Labyrinth of Solitude ch. 9 (1950) (translation by Lysander Kemp)
More Author Quotes
- Writers, you know, are the beggars of Western society.
- To love is to undress our names. β¨ Octavio Paz, Eliot Weinberger (1991). The Collected Poems of Octavio Paz, 1957-1987, p.23, New Directions Publishing
- Literature is the expression of a feeling of deprivation, a recourse against a sense of something missing. But the contrary is also true: language is what makes us human. It is a recourse against the β¦ βΆ
- Today we all speak, if not the same tongue, the same universal language. There is no one center, and time has lost its former coherence: East and West, yesterday and tomorrow exist as a confused jumb β¦ βΆ
- For every language that becomes extinct, an image of man disappears.
Most Cited Authors
William Shakespeare2362
Cassandra Clare2086
Ralph Waldo Emerson2017
Paulo Coelho1839
Rajneesh1644
Sherrilyn Kenyon1633
Mark Twain1626
C. S. Lewis1624
Rick Riordan1549
Oscar Wilde1401
Albert Einstein1372
J. K. Rowling1274
Rumi1268
Friedrich Nietzsche1258
John Green1254
Swami Vivekananda1206
Thomas Jefferson1179
Richelle Mead1130
Barack Obama1115
Henry David Thoreau1086
Terry Pratchett1070
Stephen King1024
Mahatma Gandhi1019
Jodi Picoult1016
Neil Gaiman977
Haruki Murakami976
Laozi972
27
The Best Quotes
Most Liked Authors
William Shakespeare46.4k
Cassandra Clare40.9k
Ralph Waldo Emerson38.9k
Paulo Coelho35.9k
Rajneesh32k
Sherrilyn Kenyon31.8k
Mark Twain31.7k
C. S. Lewis31k
Rick Riordan30.4k
Oscar Wilde26.9k
Albert Einstein26.8k
J. K. Rowling24.6k
John Green24.5k
Friedrich Nietzsche24.4k
Rumi24.3k
Swami Vivekananda23.3k
Thomas Jefferson22.7k
Richelle Mead22.2k
Barack Obama21.6k
Terry Pratchett21k
Henry David Thoreau20.6k
Stephen King19.8k
Jodi Picoult19.8k
Mahatma Gandhi19.7k
Neil Gaiman19.2k
Laozi19.1k
Haruki Murakami19k
27