“Loneliness is better than bad company.”
“It is better to be alone than in bad company.”
“Associate yourself with people of good quality, for it is better to be alone than to be in bad company.”
“Associate yourself with men of good quality, if you esteem your own reputation; for ‘tis better to be alone than in bad company.”
“Even the company of the mad was better than the company of the dead.”
“There is in certain living souls a quality of loneliness unspeakable, so great it must be shared as company is shared by lesser beings. Such a loneliness is mine; so know by this that in immensity there is one lonelier than you.”