There is no true solitude except interior solitude. And interior solitude is not possible for anyone who does not accept their rightful place in relation to others. There is no true peace possible for the one who still imagines that some accident of talent or grace or virtue segregates them from other people and places themselves above them. Solitude is not segregation.

Thomas Merton. New Seeds of Contemplation. (New York: New Directions Books), p 56.