4 – Of Solitude

(Found Poem in Michel de Montainge’s “Of Solitude” translated by George B. Ives)

There are some temperaments 
better adapted than others 
to these precepts of withdrawal 
from the world.

It seems to me that it is wise,
when one talks of withdrawing
from the world, to look
away from it.

It should no longer be your 
concern to make the world 
speak of you, but how you should 
speak to yourself.

Withdraw into yourself, but first
prepare to receive yourself.