“It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.” Ralph Waldo Emerson “The best thinking has been done in solitude.” Thomas A. Edison “The happiest of all lives is a busy solitude.” Voltaire “Solitary trees, if they grow at all,

Ah yes, the flâneur. The connoisseur of the street. He began as a literary figure and thanks to many commentators over the years, has evolved into a practical life philosophy.  Here are some quotes and words related to the concept of the flâneur and his (or her) pastime, flânerie. Flâneur Quote from Edgar Allen Poe I felt singularly aroused, startled, fascinated. “How wild a history,” I said to myself, “is written within that bosom!” Then came

Quotes About Observing & Observation “I am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking.” Christopher Isherwood “Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life.” Marcus Aurelius “All of us are watchers – of television, of time clocks, of traffic on the freeway – but few are observers. Everyone is looking, not many are seeing.”