October 1, 2009 Once in a blue moon you come across a passage that really speaks to you:

I am truly a “lone traveler” and have never belonged to my country, my home, my friends, or even my immediate family with my whole heart; in the face of all these ties, I have never lost a sense of distance and a need for solitude — feelings which increase with years. One becomes sharply aware, but without regret, of the limits of mutual understanding and consonance with other people. No doubt such a person loses some of his innocence and unconcern; on the other hand, he is largely independent of the opinions, habits, and judgments of his fellows and avoids the temptation to build his inner equilibrium upon such insecure foundations.

It is a very hard thing to do - sacrificing outwardly warmth and friendship for a sense of balance and lucidity in thought. It comes with plenty of regret, but so far, as a 28 year old, the upside has been greater. Time will tell if this rings true in my autumn.

The quoted passage was written in an essay called “The world as I see it” by Albert Einstein. He was 52 years old when he wrote this, 10 years after he had won the Nobel prize in 1921. It is part of a special edition of Discover magazine focused on everything Einstein.

Note: there are multiple translations of this essay on the web, most of them say more or less the same thing with different words.

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