Loneliness quotes

Pray that your loneliness may spur you

into finding something to live for,

great enough to die for.

Dag Hammarskjold

People drain me,

even the closest of friends,

and I find loneliness to be the best state

in the union to live in.

Margaret Cho

Solitude:

a sweet absence of looks.

Milan Kundera

When you close your doors,

and make darkness within,

remember never to say that you are alone,

for you are not alone; nay,

God is within,

and your genius is within.

And what need have they of light to see

what you are doing?

Epictetus

A man in a bookstore buys a book on loneliness

and every woman in the store hits on him.

A woman buys a book on loneliness

and the store clears out.

Doug Coupland

Writing is an antidote for loneliness.

Steven Berkoff

Solitude is a condition of peace

that stands in direct opposition to loneliness.

Loneliness is like sitting in an empty room 

and being aware of the space around you. 

It is a condition of separateness.

Solitude is becoming one with the space around you. It is a condition of union. loneliness is small, solitude is large. loneliness closes in around you; solitude expands toward the infinite. loneliness has its roots in words, in an internal conversation that nodbody answers; solitude has it's roots in the great silence of eternity.

Kent Nerburn

If you are alone you belong entirely to yourself ... If you are accompanied by even one companion you belong only half to yourself, or even less, in proportion to the thoughtlessness of his conduct; and if you have more than one companion you will fall more deeply into the same plight.

Leonardo da Vinci

The Internet is for lonely people.

People should live.

Charlton Heston

Loneliness has followed me my whole life.

Everywhere. In bars, in cars, sidewalks, stores, everywhere. 

There's no escape. I'm God's lonely man.

Travis Bickle,

Taxi Driver

In cities no one is quiet

but many are lonely;

In the country,

people are quiet but few are lonely.

Geoffrey F. Fisher

Loneliness is the human condition.

Cultivate it.

The way it tunnels into you

allows your soul room to grow.

Janet Fitch

Be able to be alone.

Lose not the advantage of solitude.

Sir Thomas Browne

When we cannot bear to be alone,

it means we do not properly value

the only companion we will have 

from birth to death -- ourselves.

Eda LeShan

We visit others as

a matter of social obligation.

How long has it been since

we have visited with ourselves?

Morris Adler

The person who travels alone can start today;

but the person who travels with another

must wait until the other is ready.

Henry David Thoreau

The cure for all the illness of life

is stored in the inner depth of life itself,

the access to which becomes possible

when we are alone.

This solitude is a world in itself,

full of wonders and resources

unthought of. It is absurdly near;

yet so unapproachably distant.

Deliberately seeking solitude
quality time spent away

from family and friends -- 

may seem selfish. It is not.

Solitude is as necessary

for our creative spirits to develop

and flourish as are sleep and food

for our bodies to survive.

Sarah Ban Breathnach

I remember my grandfather telling me

how each of us must live

with a full measure of loneliness

that is inescapable, and we must

not destroy ourselves with our passion

to escape this aloneness.

Jim Harrison

Wise people are never less alone

than when they are alone.

Jonathan Swift

We can cultivate

an inner solitude and silence

that sets us free

from loneliness and fear.

Loneliness is inner emptiness.

Solitude is inner fulfillment.

Solitude is not

first a place but a state

of mind and heart.

There is a solitude of heart

that can be maintained at all times.

Crowds or the lack of them have little to do

with this inward attentiveness.

It is quite possible to be a desert hermit

and never experience solitude.

But if we possess inward solitude

we will not fear being alone,

for we know that we are not alone.

Neither do we fear being with others,

for they do not control us.

In the midst of noise and confusion

we are settled into a deep inner silence.

Teresa of Avila