Living in the world, surrounded by your family, you cannot possibly give away all your possessions. So you must aim at finding the golden mean, and strive to keep to it: never turn your back on the world, but see to it that the world does not engross you.
Letters of Elder Macarius of Optina
Category: LONELINESS & SOLITUDE
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However, Clement does not demand that the Christian should abstain from all refinements of culture nor does he wish him to take the vow of poverty. The decisive point is the attitude of the soul. As long as the Christian keeps his heart independent and free from attachment to the goods of this world, there is no reason why he should withdraw from his fellows. It is more important that the cultural life of the city should be imbued with the Christian spirit.
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“I have never felt a sense of home anywhere I am. In fact, all I feel is a sense of longing for another place. A place I cannot name.”
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Until finally there are almost no others, you are left alone like one flower in a great meadow, and it is autumn, yes, the days are growing shorter, the grass bends beneath the wind. And the sun comes and shines on you still, alone in that great field, the last flower, beautiful, yes, because of that, and there you are in the long, endless afternoons, waiting, waiting …
Light Years
James Salter -
It looks as if I were “meant” to be alone, and that any hope of happiness is not meant. Am I too old to acquire the knack for happiness? Too old, perhaps, ever to take in another’s life to share with mine on a permanent basis? If so, I must make do with what I have … and what I have is a great richness of friends and a positively ardent love of nature. Not nothing!
Journal of a Solitude
May Sarton
SO GOOD QUOTES 