“…These are among the most important times in one’s life–when one is alone. Certain springs are tapped only when we are alone. The artists knows he must be alone to create; the writer to work out his thoughts; the musician, to compose; the saint, to pray.”
Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Gift from the Sea
“Learn to get in touch with silence within yourself and know that everything in this life has a purpose. There are no mistakes, no coincidences; all events are blessings given to us to learn from. There is no need to go to India or anywhere else to find peace. You will find that deep place of silence right in your room, your garden or even your bathtub.”
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
“The stillness in stillness is not the real stillness, only when there is stillness in movement does the universal rhythm manifest.”
Bruce Lee, Striking Thoughts (Page 106)
Lonely stillness—
a single cicada’s cry
sinking into stone
Bashō, Narrow Road To The Interior (Page 155)
“The silence was profound. I sat, feeling my heart begin to open.”
Bashō, Narrow Road To The Interior (Page 26)
“I always forget how important the empty days are, how important it may be sometimes not to expect to produce anything, even a few lines in a journal. A day when one has not pushed oneself to the limit seems a damaged, damaging day, a sinful day. Not so! The most valuable thing one can do for the psyche, occasionally, is to let it rest, wander, live in the changing light of a room.”
May Sarton, Journal of a Solitude
“People seek retreats for themselves in the country, by the sea, or in the mountains. You are very much in the habit of yearning for those same things. But this is entirely the trait of a base person, when you can, at any moment, find such a retreat in yourself. For nowhere can you find a more peaceful and less busy retreat than in your own soul—especially if on close inspection it is filled with ease, which I say is nothing more than being well-ordered. Treat yourself often to this retreat and be renewed.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, via The Daily Stoic (Page 91)
“[René] Descartes believed that idleness was essential to good mental work, and he made sure not to overexert himself.
Mason Currey, Daily Rituals (Page 151)
