A beautiful piece from Thoreau

One of the most intriguing sentences I have ever heard in life is a quotation I read in our Persian language text book in elementary school.

Here is the sentence: "Someone approached a sage who was sitting alone and said, 'Why are you sitting alone?' The sage pondered and replied, 'I became alone now that you came.'"

How can someone become alone when someone else comes near? Who was with the sage when he was not alone? Why does he say he was not alone?

The following piece from the American writer helped me to get deeper in the beautiful above sentence. See for yourself how close Thoreau is to the very fountainheads of our culture and literature. Isn't this amazing?

"I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time. To be in company, even with the best, is soon wearisome and dissipating. I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude. We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers. A man thinking or working is always alone, let him be where he will. Solitude is not measured by the miles of space that intervene between a man and his fellows."

This is why I love Thoreau so much. This is a clear reason why I feel so close to him. Sue, have you had the same feeling. You always explain things in a way that I understand and never forget.

Ali