From the Book Solitude

A good book is Solitude: A Return to Self, by Anthony Storr. I read it a number of years back and sometimes pick it again just to read well-written passages. Here are some phrases I found particularly pleasing:"

--"the uses of solitude"

--"religion dismissed as superstition"

--"A silver haze shimmered and trembled over" (Bernard Berenson)

--"Call no man happy till he dies." (Solon)

--"this is a disposition akin to madness" (Erich Heller)

--"the yearning for a lost paradise" (David Aberbach)

--"This is characteristic of the mystic vision..."

--"unexpected juxtapositions of themes, and unpredictable interruptions"

--"For years his whole existence had perforce been one of inert and idle submission to circumstances." (David Cecil on William Cowper).

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