It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
I tend to cycle through highly social and then highly solitary periods. From personal experience, the above quote couldn’t be more true.
I’m thoroughly enjoying Emerson’s Self-Reliance. I usually highlight 1 or 2 sentences per page of a typical Kindle book, but here it’s closer to 6 or 8. It’s a fast read, too (Kindle clocks it in at 88 pages).