The men, the music piercing that solitude And silence, told me truths I had not dreamed, And have forgotten since their beauty passed.

-Thomas, (Philip) Edward
  'Tears'.

I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.

-Thoreau, Henry David
  Walden, or Life in theWoods,'Solitude'.

Dieu cre¤  a l'homme, et ne le trouvant pas assez seul, il lui donne une compagne pour lui faire mieux sentir sa solitude. God created man and, finding him not sufficientlyalone, gave him a companion to make him feel his solitude more keenly.

-Vale¤  ry, Paul
Tel Quel1,'Moralite¤  s'.

: I think Jack, for instance, a charming name. :Jack?† No, there is very little music in the name Jack, if any at all, indeed. It does not thrill. It produces absolutely no vibrations† I have known several Jacks, and theyall, without exception, weremore than usually plain. Besides,Jack is a notorious domesticity for John! And I pity any woman who is married to a man called John. She would probably never be allowed to know the entrancing pleasure of a single moment's solitude. The only really safe name is Ernest.

-Wilde, Oscar Fingal O'FlahertieWills
  JACKGWENDOLEN1895  The Importance of Being Earnest, act1.

I was taught to feel, perhaps too much, The self-sufficing power of Solitude.

-Wordsworth,William
^1805  The Prelude, bk.2, l.76^7 (published1850).

For oft, when on my couch I lie In vacant or in pensive mood, They flash upon that inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude; And then my heart wih pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils.

-Wordsworth,William
  'I wandered lonely as a cloud', stanza 4 (published1807).