There is a silence into which the world cannot intrude. There is an ancient peace you carry in your heart and have not lost.
~ from A COURSE IN MIRACLES, as quoted in 365 PRESCRIPTIONS FOR THE SOUL by Dr. Bernie S. Siegel
A hermit must have a deep experience of communion with humanity. Without this, you cannot be a hermit, because you would only be lonely. You would not be really solitary. To be alone and cut off from others would make you very unhappy, but to be alone, and to be deeply united with others, in deep communion, that is a possibility for which many people long. That is what I call solitude—over and against loneliness.