Solitude is pleasant. Loneliness is not.

Everyone needs some time to themselves.

But the important thing about learning to wait, I feel sure, is to know what you are waiting for.

But if we learn to think of it as anticipation, as learning, as growing, if we think of the time we spend waiting for the big things of life as an opportunity instead of a passing of time, what wonderful horizons open out!

I have always found it difficult to wait for things - whether it was to see my father or sailor brother, Alan, again after their long sea trips, or the chance of a better job, or even new curtains.

But the delights of solitude don't only consist of dreaming. Next in enjoyment, I think, comes planning.

So it is necessary that we should learn to be alone.