Kenko Yoshida Quotes

If I couldn't use food or love to define contentment, I would use reading.

All men's miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone.

Most scholarly books we read for the information or insight they contain. But some we return to simply for the pleasure of the author's company.

I actually really do meditation and then I spend my morning reading.

I have lately got back to that glorious society called Solitude.

[Books] may sleep for a while and be neglected; but whenever the desire of information springs up in the human breast, there they are with mild wisdom ready to instruct and please us.

It is a most wonderful comfort to sit alone beneath a lamp, book spread before you, and commune with someone from the past whom you have never met.

There is much to be said for solitude.

Books are solitudes in which we meet.

I want to be alone with my thought.

Loneliness is black coffee and late-night television; solitude is herb tea and soft music. Solitude, quality solitude, is an assertion of self-worth, because only in the stillness can we hear the truth of our own unique voices.

Sometimes I go for days without speaking to a soul. I think, “I should make that call", but I put it off. Because there’s something pleasurable about not talking. But then I love talking, so it’s not that. But sometimes it can be nice. It’s not like I sit here philosophizing, because I’ve no talent for that. It’s just this thing about silence that’s so wonderful.

Books are the most mannerly of companions, accessible at all times, in all moods, frankly declaring the author's mind, without offense.

Reading fiction is important. It is a vital means of imagining a life other than our own, which in turn makes us more empathetic beings. Following complex story lines stretches our brains beyond the 140 characters of sound-bite thinking, and staying within the world of a novel gives us the ability to be quiet and alone, two skills that are disappearing faster than the polar icecaps.

There is nothing as certain as silence, stillness, and solitude to introduce you to the secrets of yourself.

I think I will do nothing for a long time but listen, And accrue what I hear into myself...and let sound contribute toward me.

The present state of the world and the whole of life is diseased. If I were a doctor and were asked for my advice, I should reply, 'Create silence'.

I love reading fiction about people who are connecting intellectually. I find that exhilarating.

For myself, solitude is rather like a folded-up forest that I carry with me everywhere and unfurl around myself when I have need.

A crowd is not necessarily company, but neither need it necessarily prevent thought or disturb peace of mind.

One can only snort so many ants and have so much sex before one starts to long for the comfort and companionship of a good book.

What is needed is, in the end, simply this: solitude, great inner solitude.

The man who never reads lives only one.

I have no choice sometimes, but there's something about being alone. When I'm alone I might not speak for 24 hours, but you're totally seeing things. It's a pretty cool experience.

It is both relaxing and invigorating to occasionally set aside the worries of life, seek the company of a friendly book...from the reading of 'good books' there comes a richness of life that can be obtained in no other way.