10 Quotes by Neil Ansell

This was the pattern of my days, a simple life led by natural rhythms rather than the requirements and expectations of others.

The great gift of solitude is that although you might think that it provokes introspection, actually the very opposite is true - you can lose all sense of self.

Happiness is a full larder.

...the cold got into your bones, and no matter how many logs you threw on the fire, you never felt truly warm.

Winters here are hard. It is not so much the cold as the long nights, and I tended to sleep early and wake with first light to minimize the hours spent sitting in the darkness in forced immobility, idly tending the fire.

It is useful to be reminded of your place, and to recognise just how much you still have to learn, and how much you will never know.

The silence outside was reflected by a growing silence within. Any interior monologue quietened to a whisper, then faded away entirely.

I certainly learned to be at ease with myself in the years I spent at Penlan, but it was not by knowing myself better – it was by forgetting I was there. I had become a part of the landscape, a stone.

The great gift of solitude is that although you might think that it provokes introspection, actually the very opposite is true – you can lose all sense of self.