>I had never considered the difference between solitude and loneliness before.
I had but only after I stumbled across this quote on the internet, one of my favourite:
Our language has wisely sensed the two sides of being alone. It has created the word loneliness to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word solitude to express the glory of being alone. - Paul Tillich
To clarify: I am not a native English speaker and I hadn't thought about the words themselves before seeing that quote. In German, there is no clear distinction like that. Of course, I also need my solitude.
Dutch also has "eenzaam" (lonely) en "alleen" (single, singular), but neither really confer the same meaning as "solitude". The closest expression in Dutch is probably "op zichzelf", but that still describes a fact, while solitude (feels to me like it) expresses an emotion.
I had but only after I stumbled across this quote on the internet, one of my favourite:
Our language has wisely sensed the two sides of being alone. It has created the word loneliness to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word solitude to express the glory of being alone. - Paul Tillich