"Solitude is pleasant. Loneliness is not." — Anna Neagle

I have always found it difficult to wait for things - whether it was to see my father or sailor brother, Alan, again after their long sea trips, or the chance of a better job, or even new curtains.

Everyone needs some time to themselves.

What, I sometimes wonder, would it be like if I lived in a country where winter is a matter of a few chilly days and a few weeks' rain; where the sun is never far away, and the flowers bloom all year long?

So it is necessary that we should learn to be alone.

The time I had waited probably made the difference between success and failure.

If we fix a goal and work towards it, then we are never just passing time.

But the delights of solitude don't only consist of dreaming. Next in enjoyment, I think, comes planning.

But if we learn to think of it as anticipation, as learning, as growing, if we think of the time we spend waiting for the big things of life as an opportunity instead of a passing of time, what wonderful horizons open out!

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Solitude is pleasant. Loneliness is not.