My dear,

The man who is unable to people his solitude is equally unable to be alone in a bustling crowd.

And both are needed for a spiritual life.

I don’t know a greater goal to aim for than to be able to live with oneself. I don’t know a greater goal to aim for than to be able to think properly, uniquely, individually in a crowd that desperately tries to stop you from doing so.

How do you expect to get past the crowd if you cannot be alone in the crowd first? How do you expect to walk your own path if you are unable to stand yourself? Aren’t you in your own company the most on that lonely road?

I don’t know precisely how to judge whether someone has led a worthy life or not. But I will tell you this, show me someone who can sit quietly in a room for hours with no noise, no interruptions, and nothing standing in the way between them and the nakedness of their soul, and I will show you someone who is unlike most of us.

Falsely yours,
Charles Baudelaire