Self-Containment Quotes

I keep to myself a lot, I guess.

I've never had to talk about my work, nobody's given a damn about it - you know, what I thought. I find that I sort of like that, to get to keep it to myself. It's a bit bizarre.

I am not in the world. The world is in me.

I have no curiosity. I'm an island boy.

Not only England, but every Englishman is an island.

California is a queer place in a way, it has turned its back on the world, and looks into the void Pacific. It is absolutely selfish, very empty, but not false, and at least, not full of false effort.

… splendid isolation

The soul is no traveller; the wise man stays at home, and when his necessities, his duties, on any occasion call him from his house, or into foreign lands, he is at home still, and shall make men sensible by the expression of his countenance, that he goes the missionary of wisdom and virtue, and visits cities and men like a sovereign, and not like an interloper or a valet.

I wasn't an extroverted kid. I was very academic and very introverted.

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

I've lived so deep under masks, my interior was built to satisfy me alone - I have lived almost 60 years alone, mentally, and quite content to have it so.

My life style in a sense is kind of private.

Live and let live, be and let be, Hear and let hear, see and let see. . . . Live and let live and remember this line: 'Your bus'ness is your bus'ness and my bus'ness is mine.'

Everybody is their own galaxy, their own separate entity.

She is nine, beloved, as open-faced as the sky and as self-contained. I have watched her grow. As recently as three or four years ago, she had a young child's perfectly shallow receptiveness; she fitted into the world of time, it fitted into her, as thoughtlessly as sky fits its edges, or a river its banks. But as she has grown, her smile has widened with a touch of fear and her glance has taken on depth. Now she is aware of some of the losses you incur by being here--the extortionary rent you have to pay as long as you stay.

A lot of people prefer to be alone. They would rather be a palm tree on an island. I don't get it.

I'm very strict with my packing and have everything in its right place. I never change a rule. I hardly use anything in the hotel room. I wheel my own wardrobe in and that's it.

Innocence is not pure so much as pleased, Always expectant, bright-eyed, self-enclosed

The sage knows himself, but does not parade. He cherishes himself, but does not praise himself.

I never get lonely; even as a child, I didn't.

I internalise things. My sorrows and joys are private.

Solitude is un-American.

I don't think I've ever been lonely in my entire life. I love to shut my front door and be on my own.

I accepted the face that as much as I want to lead others, and love to be around other people, in some essential way, I am something of a loner.

Maybe 'loner' is too strong a word, but I've always enjoyed being on my own.