Henry David Thoreau
1854 · Massachusetts, USA
I had three chairs in my house; one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society.
Walden, "Visitors"
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Ozaki Hosai 尾崎放哉
1926 · Taisho Japan · In his hermitage on Shodoshima, a few months before he died
Even when I cough, alone.
咳をしても一人Free-verse haiku, in Selected Haiku of Ozaki Hosai
Saigyo 西行
12th century · late Heian Japan
If only there were one more who has learned to bear loneliness: we would build our huts side by side, in this mountain village in winter.
さびしさに堪へたる人のまたもあれな庵ならべむ冬の山里Shin kokin wakashu, poems of winter
Nameless singers 蔓橫淸類 無名氏
before 1728 · Joseon Korea
Cricket, that cricket, poor little cricket. What sort of cricket is it that, as the moon sets and the night wears on, with long notes and short notes, every note a sorrow, cries on and on all by itself, and so cruelly wakes my light sleep behind the silk window? Let it be. Small creature that it is, in this empty room it may be the only one who knows my heart.
귓도리 져 귓도리 에엿부다 져 귓도리
어인 귓도리 지ᄂᆞᆫ ᄃᆞᆯ 새ᄂᆞᆫ 밤의 긴 소릐 쟈른 소릐 節節이 슬픈 소릐 제 혼자 우러 녜어 紗窓 여왼ᄌᆞᆷ을 ᄉᆞᆯ드리도 ᄭᆡ오ᄂᆞᆫ고야
두어라 제 비록 微物이나 無人洞房에 내 ᄠᅳᆺ 알 리ᄂᆞᆫ 저ᄲᅮᆫ인가 ᄒᆞ노라A long sijo (saseol sijo), in Cheonggu yeongeon (1728)
Ozaki Hosai 尾崎放哉
c. 1925 · Taisho Japan
A moon this fine, and I look at it alone and go to bed.
こんなよい月を一人で見て寝るFree-verse haiku, in Selected Haiku of Ozaki Hosai
Mark Twain
1897 · Missouri, USA · Connecticut
Grief can take care of itself; but to get the full value of a joy you must have somebody to divide it with.
Following the Equator, epigraph to chapter 48, from "Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar"
1 in 100 Billion · The social network of those who came before us