Ah! two desires toss about The poet's feverish blood. One drives him to the world without, And one to solitude.

-Arnold, Matthew
  Empedocles on Etna and Other Poems,'Stanzas in Memory of the  Author of ''Obermann''', l.93^6.

It had been hard for him that spake it to have put more truth and untruth together, in a few words, than in that speech: 'Whosoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast, or a god.'

-Bacon, Francis,Viscount St Albans
  Essays, no.27,'Of Friendship'.

La solitude re¤  tablit aussi bien les harmonies du corps que celles de l'a"  me. Solitude restores the harmonies of the body no less than those of the soul.

-Bernardin de Saint-Pierre,Jacques-Henri
  Paul et Virginie.

But two miles more and then we rest! Well, there is still an hour of day, And long the brightness of the west Sit then, awhile, here in this wood So total is the solitude, We safely may delay.

-Bronte«  , Charlotte
  'Regret', in Poems by Currer, Ellis and  Acton Bell.

It isclosing time inthegardens oftheWest and fromnow on an artist will be judged only by the resonance of his solitude or the quality of his despair.

-Connolly, Cyril Vernon
  Horizon, no.120^1, Dec1949^  Jan1950 (double issue, the final issue of the journal).

I am monarch of all I survey, My right there is none to dispute; From the centre all round to the sea, I am lord of the fowl and the brute. O Solitude! where are the charms That sages have seen in thy face? Better dwell in the midst of alarms, Than reign in this horrible place.

-Cowper,William
  Poems,'Verses Supposed to be Written by Alexander Selkirk, During His Solitary Abode in the Island of  Juan Fernandez'.

‚Oh inteligencia, soledad en llamas, que todo lo concibe sin crearlo! Oh intelligence, flaming solitude, envisioning all without creating!

-Gorostiza,Jose¤
  Muerte sin fin, pt.1 (translated as Death without End,1969).

As for meöfor me, the grass grew longer, and more sorrowful, and the trees were surfaced like flesh, and girls were no longer to be treated lightly but were creatures of commanding sadness, and all journeys through the valley were now made alone, with passion in every bush, and the motions of wind and cloud and stars were suddenly for myself alone, and voices elected me of all men living and called me to deliver the world, and I groaned from solitude, blushed when I stumbled, loved strangers and bread and butter, and made long trips through the rain on my bicycle, stared wretchedly through lighted windows, grinned wryly to think how little I was known, and lived in a state of raging excitement.

-Lee, Laurie
  Cider With Rosie,'Last Days'.

Society is all but rude, To this delicious solitude.

-Marvell, Andrew
c.1650^1652  'The Garden' (published1681).

Virtue could see to do what Virtue would By her own radiant light, though sun and moon Were in the flat sea sunk. And Wisdom's self Oft seeks to sweet retired solitude, Where with her best nurse contemplation She plumes her feathers, and lets grow her wings That in the various bustle of resort Were all too ruffl'd, and sometimes impair'd. He that has light within his own clear breast May sit i'the centre, and enjoy bright day, But he that hides a dark soul, and foul thoughts Benighted walks under the midday sun; Himself is his own dungeon.

-Milton,John
  Comus,  A Mask, l.372^83.

Our two first parents, yet the only two Of mankind, in the happy garden placed, Reaping immortal fruits of joy and love, Uninterrupted joy, unrivalled love In blissful solitude.

-Milton,John
  Paradise Lost (published1667), bk.3, l.65^9.

   In solitude What happiness, who can enjoyalone, Or all enjoying, what contentment find?

-Milton,John
   Adam. Paradise Lost (published1667), bk.8, l.364^6.

For solitude sometimes is best society, And short retirement urges sweet return.

-Milton,John
  Paradise Lost (published1667), bk.9, l.249^50.

Il se faut reserver une arriere boutique toute nostre, toute franche, en laquelle nous establissons nostre vraye liberte¤   et principale retraite et solitude. We must reserve a backshop, wholly our own and entirely free, wherein to settle our true liberty, our principle solitude and retreat.

-Montaigne, Michel Eyquem de
  Essais, bk.1, ch.39 (translated by Charles Cotton).

Solitude is the playfield of Satan.

-Nabokov,Vladimir
  Pale Fire,'Commentary'.

It may be divided into three parts; in one you cannot hear, in another you cannot see, and in the third you can neither see nor hear. I remember once sitting alone in the third divisionöand never before or since have I had such a profound feeling of the power of solitude.

-North, Christopher pseudonym of  JohnWilson
  Of the Theatre Royal, Glasgow.'Noctes  Ambrosianae', no.64, in Blackwood's Magazine, Nov.

What Chekhov saw in our failure to communicate was something positive and precious: the private silence in which we live, and which enables us to endure our own solitude.

-Pritchett, Sir V(ictor) S(awdon)
  The Myth Makers,'Chekhov'.

And I turned and fled, like a soul pursued, From the white, inviolate solitude.

-Roberts, Sir Charles George Douglas
  'The Skater'.

The City's voice itself is soft like Solitude's.

-Shelley, Percy Bysshe
  'StanzasWritten in Dejection, near Naples'.

It was her voice that made The sky acutest at its vanishing. She measured to the hour its solitude. She was the single artificer of the world In which she sang.

-Stevens,Wallace
  Ideas of Order,'The Idea of Order at KeyWest'.