And I want him. I want him in a way that’s different from how I’ve ever wanted anyone before. I want him around me and over me and inside me. But I also want him next to me, and beside me, and with me.
“The world today does not understand, in either man or woman, the need to be alone. How inexplicable it seems. Anything else will be accepted as a better excuse. If one sets aside time for a business appointment, a trip to the hairdresser, a social engagement, or a shopping expedition, that time is accepted as inviolable. But if one says: I cannot come because that is my hour to be alone, one is considered rude, egotistical, or strange. What a commentary on our civilization, when being alone is considered suspect; when one has to apologize for it, make excuses, hide the fact that one practices it--like a secret vice!”
― Gift from the Sea
― Gift from the Sea
“To ask how little, not how much, can I get along with. To say—is it necessary?—when I am tempted to add one more accumulation to my life, when I am pulled toward one more centrifugal activity.”
― Gift from the Sea: 70th Anniversary Edition
― Gift from the Sea: 70th Anniversary Edition
“Only when one is connected to one’s own core is one connected to others, I am beginning to discover. And, for me, the core, the inner spring, can best be refound through solitude.”
― Gift from the Sea: 70th Anniversary Edition
― Gift from the Sea: 70th Anniversary Edition
“We are asked today to feel compassionately for everyone in the world; to digest intellectually all the information spread out in public print; and to implement in action every ethical impulse aroused by our hearts and minds. The interrelatedness of the world links us constantly with more people than our hearts can hold. Or rather—for I believe the heart is infinite—modern communication loads us with more problems than the human frame can carry.”
― Gift from the Sea: 70th Anniversary Edition
― Gift from the Sea: 70th Anniversary Edition
“What release to write so that one forgets oneself, forgets one's companion, forgets where one is or what one is going to do next--to be drenched in work as one is drenched in sleep or the sea.”
― Gift from the Sea
― Gift from the Sea
Goodreads Librarians Group
— 322147 members
— last activity 5 minutes ago
Goodreads Librarians are volunteers who help ensure the accuracy of information about books and authors in the Goodreads' catalog. The Goodreads Libra ...more
INFJs and Empaths
— 158 members
— last activity Feb 01, 2026 10:53AM
A place for INFJ (Introvert, iNtuitive, Feeling, Judicial) Myers-Briggs personality types as well as those with empathic abilities to connect, share r ...more
Melanie’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Melanie’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
More friends…
Favorite Genres
Polls voted on by Melanie
Lists liked by Melanie





























































