Man shall not live by bread alone!

Today’s English
June 16th, 2017

People have multitudinous personalities of which introverts, lovers of solitude have a distinct type. They want to be alone, quite and unstained and disgust crowd and to be in the company of others. How to talk about such people in English is our today’s concern.

1. Difference between lonely and alone

If you feel extremely unhappy because you don’t have friends and relatives nearby, you are lonely.  If you don’t want to be disturbed by others, you wish to be alone. In the former case, you miss somebody but in the latter you voluntarily keep yourself away from others.  Poets, sages and philosophers wish to be in solitude whereas students staying in hostel and newly married women at husband’s home feel lonely.

A. Leave me alone, please. / I want to live alone. (Incorrect: I want to live lonely)
B. I felt lonely when my friends went abroad.

2. Wish you had never been born = told while feeling extremely unhappy

A. When his love ended in failure, he wished he had never been born.
B. Why should I see all this nonsense? I wish I had never been born.

3. Sick at heart – to get disappointed and be unhappy
A. She was sick at heart when scored very poor in the exam.
B. He was sick at heart to see the sales come down.

4. Difference: unsocial, unsociable and antisocial
Unsocial means “outside normal working hours”  and unsociable carries the meaning – “not willing to be in the company of others'" But antisocial refers to "being against the accepted customs and laws of the society.”

A. Her parents did not permit her to work unsocial hours.
B. He felt unsociable and did not attend the farewell party.
C. His antisocial behavior shocked everyone.

5. Man shall not live by bread alone = spiritual fulfilment is a must though you are well settled with food and shelter.

A. You are well settled in life now but don’t forget that man shall not live by bread alone.
B. I can’t do this work just for money. I know, man shall not live by bread alone.

“A man can be himself only so long as he is alone; and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom; for it is only when he is alone that he is really free.
- Arthur Schopenhauer, Essays and Aphorisms