The whole conviction of my life now rests upon the belief that loneliness, far from being a rare and curious phenomenon, peculiar to myself and to a few other solitary men, is the central and inevitable fact of human existence.
Source: In The Speaker's Electronic Reference Collection, AApex Software, 1994.
-- Thomas Wolfe, (Oct 3 1900-1938), US novelist; He is best known for his first novel, Look Homeward Angel, 1929.