Solitude or Loneliness

Let me try to distinguish between solitude and loneliness. Solitude is self-imposed, loneliness is thrust upon you. In solitude you commune with yourself. You meditate and for the time being cut yourself off from the world. In loneliness you are at war with yourself, realizing the futility of life and the absurdity of existence, or the inability to resolve the conflict between the real and the ideal, between what is and what ought to be, between the temporal and the spiritual. To be alone is to me the worst kind of punishment that could ever be awarded for whatever sins I might have committed. I have my bitter moods and moments of unhappiness.

Thus, I think, “loneliness” and “solitude” are two names given to the same condition with a different frame of mind. No one can negate the fact of being alone ultimately. If we understand the mystery of life, we live in solitude and in the absence of this understanding, it is loneliness.