The quality I look for most is optimism: especially optimism in the face of reverses and apparent defeat.
You are always wanting me to give up something. What do you want me to give up now?
I believe it is in our nature to explore, to reach out into the unknown. The only true failure would be not to explore at all.
Thomas Merton·1953It is in deep solitude that I find the gentleness with which I can truly love my brothers. The more solitary I am, the more affection I have for them.
Ralph Waldo Emerson·1841Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.
Henry David Thoreau·1859I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time. To be in company, even with the best, is soon wearisome and dissipating. I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude. We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers. A man thinking or working is always alone, let him be where he will... The really diligent student... is as solitary as a dervish in the desert. The farmer can work alone in the field or the woods all day, hoeing or chopping, and not feel lonesome.
