…remember that solitude has always been, in all the history of mental achievement, a requisite for great work. (…) The great poems written in lonely garrets—the masterpiece paintings conceived by the artist amid the fields—the divine harmonies first heard by the musician communing with the stars—the sublime oration which first stirred the soul of the orator as he tramped in the forest—all attest that the best comes to man when he is alone.
Note, solitude does not mean you, your computer, and your internet connection. And the whole “man” thing is sooo 19th century.
h/t Academic Productivity
This entry was posted on Thursday, August 14th, 2008 at 7:40 pm and is filed under Creativity. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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September 7, 2008 at 6:54 pm |
More of a comment on an earlier post. I decided that The Computer, wherever it is, is sucking my life away, and resolved to get really good at something– something where practice was the key. I picked drawing. A pencil and whatever’s handy for drawing on fits a lot better with solitude than a computer…or even a book…does.
December 19, 2008 at 10:28 pm |
Sounds neat, but is it actually true?
There are a great many fields in which double-acts and teams have done wonderful work.
In fact an excess of solitude seems to have done in most of the beautiful minds that went to live in refined seclusion at the IAS in Princeton!
February 18, 2009 at 9:30 am |
[...] Source: Mike [...]
June 9, 2009 at 12:55 am |
I’m glad that i found this blog because a) I’m currently attempting to implement gtd into my collegiate life — a task I’ve reallly struggled with and because b) i’m a sooner born i’m a sooner bred!