William Shakespeare - Thomas Hardy - Steven Wright - Simeon Strunsky - William Wordsworth Alexander Pope - Friedrich Nietzsche - Henry David Thoreau -
And private in his chamber pens himself,
Shuts up his windows, locks fair daylight out,
And makes himself an artificial night. William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet I i 135-137
Close up the casement, draw the blind,
Shut out that stealing moon. Thomas Hardy, Shut Out That Moon
Hermits have no peer pressure. Steven Wright
New York has more hermits than will be found in all the forests, mountains and deserts of the United States. Simeon Strunsky
Nuns fret not at their convent’s narrow room;
And hermits are contented with their cells. William Wordsworth
The world forgetting; by the world forgot. Alexander Pope
To live alone one must be an animal or a god, says Aristotle. Yet there is a third case: one must be both – a philosopher. Friedrich Nietzsche
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived ... I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swathe and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms. Henry David Thoreau