“Baudelaire proclaimed the delight he felt when at last, in the evening, he was alone in the haven of his bedroom. There, he wrote, citing La Bruyère, he escaped ‘the great woe of not being able to be alone’, by contrast with those who lose themselves in the crowd, ‘probably afraid they couldn’t tolerate themselves’.”
―
Alain Corbin,
A History of Silence: From the Renaissance to the Present Day
