Alone Time: Four Seasons, Four Cities, and the Pleasures of Solitude QUOTES

1 " It is through serendipitous encounters with objects and strangers that the world speaks to us but we have to be listening. By learning to be alert for clues, one is suddenly caught up in an exciting inner adventure. "

― Stephanie Rosenbloom , Alone Time: Four Seasons, Four Cities, and the Pleasures of Solitude

2 " There’s only one very good life, and that’s the life that you know you want, and you make it yourself. "

― Stephanie Rosenbloom , Alone Time: Four Seasons, Four Cities, and the Pleasures of Solitude

3 " The researchers found that joyful and fulfilled people seem to intuitively know “that sustained happiness is not just about doing things that you like. It also requires growth and adventuring beyond the boundaries of your comfort zone. "

― Stephanie Rosenbloom , Alone Time: Four Seasons, Four Cities, and the Pleasures of Solitude

4 " Alone, there’s no need for an itinerary. Walk, and the day arranges itself. "

― Stephanie Rosenbloom , Alone Time: Four Seasons, Four Cities, and the Pleasures of Solitude

5 " There is a difference, though, between savoring a moment and clinging to it. There’s no scientific upside to clinging, to mourning the last days of a great vacation. Acceptance of this requires practice, but to be a great traveler, to be a good student of life, as Bryant put it, you have to learn to let go. “One of the laws of travel,” he said, “one of the laws of the kingdom, is it must end. "

― Stephanie Rosenbloom , Alone Time: Four Seasons, Four Cities, and the Pleasures of Solitude

6 " one of the strongest predictors of happiness is whether or not your attention is focused where you are in the present. "

― Stephanie Rosenbloom , Alone Time: Four Seasons, Four Cities, and the Pleasures of Solitude

7 " I used to take walks only in good weather. No I do so in any weather. When I travel, my favorite way to acquaint myself with a city is to walk it. Why not do the same in my hometown? "

― Stephanie Rosenbloom , Alone Time: Four Seasons, Four Cities, and the Pleasures of Solitude

8 " It is not necessary to have company when you travel. "

― Stephanie Rosenbloom , Alone Time: Four Seasons, Four Cities, and the Pleasures of Solitude

9 " my own serendipitous moments tend to happen when I’m alone, with time to indulge my curiosity. "

― Stephanie Rosenbloom , Alone Time: Four Seasons, Four Cities, and the Pleasures of Solitude

10 " By hook or by crook, I hope that you will possess yourselves of money enough to travel and to idle,” she said, “to contemplate the future or the past of the world, to dream over books and loiter at street corners and let the line of thought dip deep in the stream. "

― Stephanie Rosenbloom , Alone Time: Four Seasons, Four Cities, and the Pleasures of Solitude

11 " Research shows that not long after we get home from a vacation, we tend to return to our particular baseline level of happiness. To help prevent that from happening, I didn’t fully leave the cities I’d visited but instead made them filters through which I saw my own. I stopped into small bread and cheese shops, took my time with my coffee. Seemingly cheerless streets became opportunities for observing graffiti and strangers, for “coloring the external world with the warm hues of the imagination,” as Anthony Storr described creative living "

― Stephanie Rosenbloom , Alone Time: Four Seasons, Four Cities, and the Pleasures of Solitude

12 " The world's first sidewalks appeared around 2000 B.C. in what is now Turkey. But it was in Paris - where there are at least as many styles of wandering (flanerie, derive, errance) as there are the customary cheek kisses (la bise) - that the sidewalk became an avenue for pleasure. No need to follow the 1920s-style red METRO sign underground, or climb into the taxi with 'Parisien' on its rooftop light. From the sidewalk, the best of the city can be had for free. "

― Stephanie Rosenbloom , Alone Time: Four Seasons, Four Cities, and the Pleasures of Solitude

13 " Walking alone is a city that's not my own, I think of what Virginia Woolf wished for the women in Cambridge who came to hear her speak in 1928. 'By hook or by crook, I hope that you will possess yourselves of money enough to travel and to idle,' she said, 'to contemplate the future or the past of the world, to dream over books and loiter at street corners and let the line of thought dip deep in the stream. "

― Stephanie Rosenbloom , Alone Time: Four Seasons, Four Cities, and the Pleasures of Solitude

14 " When preparing for a trip, we can read about architecture and restaurants. But what ultimately breathes life into the daydreams of anticipation are the people we encounter when we're actually there, including those we merely pass on the street or, in this case, the stairwell. I thought, too, of the man on the pier who offered his hand to steady me as I stepped off the ferry, and of the old woman in the public restroom who motioned for me to come and share with her the sole tiny sink. The possibility of these wordless interactions, to which we can be particularly attuned when alone, didn't cross my mind when I was anticipating my days in Istanbul. I had envisioned ships and minarets, the Grand Bazaar and the Hagia Sofia, yet not these faces, not these moments that silently transmit the warmth of a city. "

― Stephanie Rosenbloom , Alone Time: Four Seasons, Four Cities, and the Pleasures of Solitude

15 " SOME DAYS YOU WAKE AND IMMEDIATELY START TO WORRY. NOTHING IN PARTICULAR IS WRONG, IT’S JUST THE SUSPICION THAT FORCES ARE ALIGNING QUIETLY AND THERE WILL BE TROUBLE. "

― Stephanie Rosenbloom , Alone Time: Four Seasons, Four Cities, and the Pleasures of Solitude

16 " It’s not hard, standing in the townhouse, to picture yourself growing older, losing people you love, feeling betrayed by solitude. "

― Stephanie Rosenbloom , Alone Time: Four Seasons, Four Cities, and the Pleasures of Solitude

17 " All that being said, we have a tendency to underestimate the pleasure that can come from conversations with strangers. For instance, a field study by Gillian M. Sandstrom of the University of Essex in England, and Elizabeth Dunn at the University of British Columbia, asked customers buying coffee in a busy Starbucks to either have a genuine social interaction with the barista, as they would with an acquaintance, or to make their interaction as efficient as possible, avoiding unnecessary conversation. Guess who enjoyed their coffee run more? The people who connected with the person who took their order. "

― Stephanie Rosenbloom , Alone Time: Four Seasons, Four Cities, and the Pleasures of Solitude

18 " How can one keep one’s enthusiasm concentrated on a subject when one is always at the mercy of other people and in constant need of their society? "

― Stephanie Rosenbloom , Alone Time: Four Seasons, Four Cities, and the Pleasures of Solitude

19 " To share a meal is to undoubtedly experience one of life's great joys. Yet this doesn't mean that there can't be some kind of connection when we eat alone, be it with ourselves, what's around us, or a higher power. UNESCO states that French gastronomy emphasizes 'the pleasure of taste,' and that some of the essential elements involve utilizing local products, pairing food with wine, and taking the time to smell and taste items at the table. Alone, we can plumb local markets and examine their wares closely. We can breathe in and relish the flavors in a sauce, or the coolness of a pitcher of cream. We don't necessarily take time to do these things in the presence of company, particularly during lively conversation. A solo meal is an opportunity to go slow; to savor. "

― Stephanie Rosenbloom , Alone Time: Four Seasons, Four Cities, and the Pleasures of Solitude

20 " I'm shy, and while I was mildly concerned about what people might think of me when I began dining alone, I was more concerned about what I might think of me if I didn't try. I didn't want to be someone who experienced less of a city, less of life, because I was afraid. So I went. "

― Stephanie Rosenbloom , Alone Time: Four Seasons, Four Cities, and the Pleasures of Solitude