“Aristotle and John Donne were wrong. Some of us might be social animals, but there have always been those of us who are islands. A richer or more complete account would be hard to imagine. Everything but the floor plans."
— BILL PORTER (Red Pine), author, Road to Heaven: Encounters with Chinese Hermits and Finding Them Gone: Visiting China's Poets of the Past, translator, Poems of the Masters and Zen Roots,the First Thousand Years.

"A comprehensive and authoritative survey of the hermit tradition from the ancient Greeks to contemporary exemplars of social withdrawal."
— DAVID VINCENT, professor emeritus of social history, Open University, author, The Book of Solitude and Privacy: A Short History.

"A wonderful, sympathetic and informative book from a lifelong researcher of hermit life and lore. I loved reading it."
— ANDREAS MATHIAS, professor of philosophy, Lingnan University, Hong Kong, author, The Simpler Life: Epicurus, Hermits, and the Dao; editor, Daily Philosophy online magazine.