“
World is so full of idiots that you can't even imagine to escape. The only solution is isolation. But it still spares one!
”
”
Raheel Farooq
“
Love again: wanking at ten past three
(Surely he's taken her home by now?),
The bedroom hot as a bakery,
The drink gone dead, without showing how
To meet tomorrow, and afterwards,
And the usual pain, like dysentery.
Someone else feeling her breasts and cunt,
Someone else drowned in that lash-wide stare,
And me supposed to be ignorant,
Or find it funny, or not to care,
Even ... but why put it into words?
Isolate rather this element
That spreads through other lives like a tree
And sways them on in a sort of sense
And say why it never worked for me.
Something to do with violence
A long way back, and wrong rewards,
And arrogant eternity.
”
”
Philip Larkin
“
There is this common notion that people are shallow and ignorant until they go out and see the world. I, on the other hand, went out and in comparison realized I was in pretty good standing.
”
”
Criss Jami (Healology)
“
It’s funny how the same thing a man loves, is the same thing that he hates. What makes me stand out as a woman is that I have nonnegotiable principles, strength, and faith in my people. From the time that we shared you seemed to love that, admire it, even. Now you hate it because my ways have isolated you. The truth is, you’ve isolated yourself.
”
”
Sister Souljah (The Coldest Winter Ever)
“
I'd tempered my expectations, packed them tight into bricks. built a fortress to protect me. But keeping every glimmer of hope out has isolated me too, and I want to be seen. I want to be loved. I want to live with the hope that things can get better, even if, in the end, they don't.
”
”
Emily Henry (Funny Story)
“
I’d tempered my expectations, packed them tight into bricks, built a fortress to protect me. But keeping every glimmer of hope out has isolated me too, and I want to be seen. I want to be loved. I want to live with the hope that things can get better, even if, in the end, they don’t.
”
”
Emily Henry (Funny Story)
“
Records made ‘at one sitting’ sound so fresh now – because the rate of discovery and the emotional tempo match those of the listener. What’s infuriating, though, is how fragile those fabrics are. I’ve noticed that, trying to work on improvisations that have ‘something’, they very quickly dissolve into nothing the more attention they get. It’s almost like trying to reconstruct a very funny dinner party – you had to be there, and it’s impossible to isolate the chemistry of what really made it work.
”
”
Brian Eno (A Year with Swollen Appendices: Brian Eno's Diary)
“
You didn't need to do that," Morriumur said to me. "I came into this knowing I would be isolated."
"Yeah, well, I rarely let go of someone once I have my teeth in them," I said. "It's the warrior's way."
"What a . . . profoundly disturbing metaphor," Morriumur said, settling back down.
- Spensa & Morriumur; Starsight; Brandon Sanderson Skyward Series
”
”
Brandon Sanderson (Starsight (Skyward, #2))
“
For the next several nights in isolation, I got a funny guard who was trying to convert me to Christianity. I enjoyed the conversations, though my English was very basic. My dialogue partner was young, religious, and energetic. He liked Bush (“the true religious leader,” according to him); he hated Bill Clinton (“the Infidel”). He loved the dollar and hated the Euro.
”
”
Mohamedou Ould Slahi (The Mauritanian (originally published as Guantánamo Diary))
“
Going through something difficult can be an incredibly isolating experience, but it would be far less so if we could all just talk to one another without the fear of doing it wrong. Candor and comedy really do connect us as humans, and it depresses me to think of how much connection we might be missing out on because people are too afraid to try.
”
”
Kat Timpf (You Can't Joke About That: Why Everything Is Funny, Nothing Is Sacred, and We're All in This Together)
“
The most important thing you can do to avoid misjudging the importance of something is to avoid isolated figures. Never, ever, leave a figure alone. Never believe that a figure can be significant on its own. If you are presented with a figure, always ask At least one more. Something to compare it to. Be especially careful with large figures. Funny, but figures that exceed a certain size, if not compared to something, always seem large. And how can you not be important something big?
”
”
Hans Rosling (Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think)
“
The person who experiences disruption of bonding recoils and withdraws emotionally. He does not experience his need, the hunger for love. Instead, he buries his needs deep inside, so he can no longer be hurt. This withdrawal is called defensive devaluation. Defensive devaluation is a protective device that makes love bad, trust unimportant, and people “no darn good” anyway. People who have been deeply hurt in their relationships will often devalue love so it doesn’t hurt so much. And they often become resigned to never loving again. People who are unbonded do funny things in relationships: They don’t look for safe people: there’s no hunger. They don’t recognize safe people: no one is safe. They don’t reach out to safe people: why get hurt again? Although unbonded people often have friends and families, their isolation is deep and can cause many serious problems. A person who cannot bond may suffer from addictions, depression, emptiness, excessive caretaking, fear of being treated like an object, fears of closeness, feelings of guilt, feelings of unreality, idealism, lack of joy, loss of meaning, negative bonds, outbursts of anger, panic, shallow relationships, or thought problems such as confusion, distorted thinking, and irrational fears.
”
”
Henry Cloud (Safe People: How to Find Relationships That Are Good for You and Avoid Those That Aren't)
“
People who are unbonded do funny things in relationships: They don’t look for safe people: there’s no hunger.
They don’t recognize safe people: no one is safe.
They don’t reach out to safe people: why get hurt again? Although unbonded people often have friends and families, their isolation is deep and can cause many serious problems. A person who cannot bond may suffer from addictions, depression, emptiness, excessive caretaking, fear of being treated like an object, fears of closeness, feelings of guilt, feelings of unreality, idealism, lack of joy, loss of meaning, negative bonds, outbursts of anger, panic, shallow relationships, or thought problems such as confusion, distorted thinking, and irrational fears.
”
”
Henry Cloud (Safe People: How to Find Relationships That Are Good for You and Avoid Those That Aren't)
“
A light was flashing on the desktop display when Kira entered. Another message. With a sense of trepidation, she pulled it up.
I am the spark in the center of the void. I am the wider shin scream that cleaves the night. I am your eschatological nightmare. I am the one and the word and the fullness of the light.
Would you like to play a game? Y/N
-Gregorovitch
As a rule, ship minds tended to be eccentric, and the larger they were, the more eccentricities they displayed. Gregorovich was on the outer tail of that bell curve, though. She couldn’t tell if it was just his personality or if his behavior was the result of too much isolation.
Surely, Falconi isn’t crazy enough to fly around with an unstable ship mind… Right?
Either way, best to play it safe:
No. -Kira
An instant later, a reply popped up:
☹️ -Gregorovich
”
”
Christopher Paolini (To Sleep in a Sea of Stars (Fractalverse, #1))
“
A light was flashing on the desktop display when Kira entered. Another message. With a sense of trepidation, she pulled it up.
I am the spark in the center of the void. I am the widdershin scream that cleaves the night. I am your eschatological nightmare. I am the one and the word and the fullness of the light.
Would you like to play a game? Y/N
-Gregorovitch
As a rule, ship minds tended to be eccentric, and the larger they were, the more eccentricities they displayed. Gregorovich was on the outer tail of that bell curve, though. She couldn’t tell if it was just his personality or if his behavior was the result of too much isolation.
Surely, Falconi isn’t crazy enough to fly around with an unstable ship mind… Right?
Either way, best to play it safe:
No. -Kira
An instant later, a reply popped up:
☹️ -Gregorovich
”
”
Christopher Paolini (To Sleep in a Sea of Stars (Fractalverse, #1))
“
It's funny that Jake brought up intelligence earlier. His question about the smartest human in the world. It's like Jake knew I've been thinking about that. I've been thinking about all of these things. Is intelligence always good? I wonder. What if intelligence is wasted? What if intelligence leads to more loneliness rather than to fulfillment? What if instead of productivity and clarity, it generates pain, isolation, and regret? It's been on my mind a lot, Jake's intelligence. Not just now. I've been thinking about it for a while.
”
”
Iain Reid (I'm Thinking of Ending Things)
“
More often, medical trainees can be likened to frogs in slowly boiling water. We see sickness and death constantly, and if we are not careful, the doctor we had hoped to become will burn out. Out of necessity we create shells that protect and isolate us; sometimes it hurts too much to repeatedly feel another’s pain. We laugh at things that are not funny. We discuss people in a dehumanized, detached way.
”
”
Brent Rock Russell (Miracles and Mayhem in the ER: Unbelievable True Stories from an Emergency Room Doctor)
“
Conforming means “don’t make waves” or “don’t rock the boat.” Be a nice gal or a good ol’ boy. This means we have to pretend a lot. From Bradshaw On: The Family: We are taught to be nice and polite. We are taught that these behaviors (most often lies) are better than telling the truth. Our churches, schools and politics are rampant with teaching dishonesty (saying things we don’t mean and pretending to feel ways we don’t feel). We smile when we feel sad, laugh nervously when dealing with grief, laugh at jokes we don’t think are funny, tell people things to be polite that we surely don’t mean. Playing roles and acting are forms of lying. If people act like they really feel and it rocks the boat, they are ostracized. We promote pretense and lying as a cultural way of life. Living this way causes an inner split. It teaches us to hide and cover up our toxic shame. This sends us deeper into isolation and loneliness.
”
”
John Bradshaw (Healing the Shame that Binds You)
“
You know, the Bible encourages us not to forsake fellowship with other believers. I think it’s because we really do need each other. Not a one of us can thrive isolated and on our own.
”
”
Karen Scalf Linamen (Welcome to the Funny Farm: The All-True Misadventures of a Woman on the Edge)
“
[...] 'other people provide me with my existence'. On his own, he feels that he is empty and nobody. 'I can't feel real unless there is someone there.... ' Nevertheless, he cannot feel at ease with another person, because he feels as 'in danger' with others as by himself. He is, therefore, driven compulsively to seek company, but never allows himself to 'be himself in the presence of anyone else. He avoids social anxiety by never really being with others. He never quite says what he means or means what he says. The part he plays is always not quite himself. He takes care to laugh when he thinks a joke is not funny, and look bored when he is amused. He makes friends with people he does not really like and is rather cool to those with whom he would 'really' like to be friends. No one, therefore, really knows him, or understands him. He can be himself in safety only in isolation, albeit with a sense of emptiness and unreality. With others, he plays an elaborate game of pretence and equivocation. His social self is felt to be false and futile. What he longs for most is the possibility of 'a moment of recognition', but whenever this by chance occurs, when he has by accident 'given himself away', he is covered in confusion and suffused with panic.
”
”
R.D.Laing (The Divided Self( An Existential Study in Sanity and Madness)[DIVIDED SELF REV/E][Paperback])
“
I isolate because I can’t think of anything except my own pain and self-disgust, and those who can’t think of anyone but themselves aren’t the best company.
”
”
Kelly Williams Brown (Easy Crafts for the Insane: A Mostly Funny Memoir of Mental Illness and Making Things)
“
The funny thing is, the more people I surround myself with, the lonelier I feel. I could be dancing in a sea of people and still be completely alone. You may be the very first person at one of these parties to see me.
”
”
M.A. Kuzniar (Upon a Frosted Star)
“
The Light that lights every person who comes into the world is not a joking matter. That Light which God has set within the human breast, which can isolate a soul and hang it between heaven and hell, as lonely as if God had created but that one person—that is not a joking matter. Joke about politics if you must joke. Politics is usually funny any-way. But do not joke about God, and do not joke about conscience.
”
”
A.W. Tozer (Faith Beyond Reason)
“
All rational beings laugh--and maybe only rational beings laugh. And all rational beings benefit from laughing. As a result there has emerged a peculiar human institution--that of the joke, the repeatable performance in words or gestures that is designed as an object of laughter. Now there is a great difficulty in saying exactly what laughter is. It is not just a sound--not even a sound, since it can be silent. Nor is it just a thought, like the thought of some object as incongruous. It is a response to something, which also involves a judgment of that thing. Moreover, it is not an individual peculiarity, like a nervous tic or a sneeze. Laughter is an expression of amusement, and amusement is an outwardly directly, socially pregnant state of mind. Laughter begins as a collective condition, as when children giggle together over some absurdity. And in adulthood amusements remains one of the ways in which human beings enjoy each other's company, become reconciled to their differences, and accept their common lot. Laughter helps us to overcome out isolation and fortifies us against despair.
That does not mean that laughter is subjective in the sense that 'anything goes,' or that it is uncritical of its object. On the contrary, jokes are the object of fierce disputes, and many are dismissed as 'not funny,' 'in bad taste,' 'offensive,' and so on. The habit of laughing at things is not detachable from the habit of judging things to be worthy of laughter. Indeed, amusement, although a spontaneous outflow of social emotion, is also the most frequently practiced form of judgment. To laugh at something is already to judge it.
”
”
Roger Scruton (Culture Counts: Faith and Feeling in a World Besieged)
“
Pain is often feared; but we learned it was more the isolation around the pain that we feared. When shared, the pain felt almost funny.
”
”
Ben Crawford (2,000 Miles Together: The Story of the Largest Family to Hike the Appalachian Trail)
“
I’d tempered my expectations, packed them tight into bricks, built a fortress to protect me. But keeping every glimmer of hope out has isolated me too, and I want to be seen. I want to be loved. I want to live with the hope
”
”
Emily Henry (Funny Story)
“
Maybe that's what makes us human—the fact that we know how broken we are, but we keep playing the game anyway. Maybe that's what the ancients were trying to say all along. Life's a tragedy, sure, but it's also a comedy.
And the only way to survive was to keep laughing, even when there's nothing funny about it.
”
”
Sasha Harding
“
Halloween was the worst offender, the one day of the year when people revealed the faces they wished they could wear every day. Heroes, villains, sexed-up archetypes—costumes that screamed what they wanted to be, what they couldn't admit they were. It was funny how the tide had turned. Growing up, we cheered for the heroes. They were brave, just, and invincible. But now? Now, everyone rooted for the villains. Villains weren't born evil. They were shaped by pain and rejection. They were the ones who had suffered, the ones people could relate to. Heroes endured tragedy, but villains were tragedy. We could see ourselves in their fractures.
”
”
Sasha Harding