Loneliness is very common. Everyone experiences loneliness to different degrees throughout their life but sometimes it is helpful to realize just how widespread this experience is. Most will agree that loneliness is not desirable and they would prefer to avoid loneliness if given the option. However, since this feeling is experienced universally, sometimes it can be reassuring to see how commonly it is has been referred to. Reading quotes that reference loneliness can quickly showcase the fact that loneliness affects everyone and there are many ways loneliness can be acknowledged. Emperors, authors, politicians, scientists, mothers, fathers, boys and girls; we all experience loneliness.
While the majority of the quotes listed below are related to “loneliness”, around 20% of the following quotes are unrelated to loneliness but instead focus on being positive and being better. So there are 120 quotes in total. I enjoy re-reading through them on occasion to reinforce the fact that while there is proof of loneliness being experienced everywhere, there are options available to better prepare ourselves, endure and overcome.
“I have absolutely no pleasure in the
stimulants in which I sometimes so madly indulge. It has not been in the
pursuit of pleasure that I have periled life and reputation and reason. It has
been the desperate attempt to escape from torturing memories, from a sense of
insupportable loneliness and a dread of some strange impending doom.”
― Edgar Allan Poe
“Maybe ever’body in the whole damn world
is scared of each other.”
― John Steinbeck
“All I ever wanted was to reach out and
touch another human being not just with my hands but with my heart.”
― Tahereh Mafi
“Associate with men of good quality if
you esteem your own reputation for it is better to be alone than in bad
company.”
― George Washington
“being alone never felt right. Sometimes
it felt good, but it never felt right.”
― Charles Bukowski
“If you are not willing to risk the
usual you will have to settle for the ordinary.”
― Jim Rohn
“When I get lonely these days, I think:
So BE lonely, Liz. Learn your way around loneliness. Make a map of it. Sit with
it, for once in your life. Welcome to the human experience. But never again use
another person’s body or emotions as a scratching post for your own unfulfilled
yearnings.”
― Elizabeth Gilbert
“It is strange to be known so universally
and yet to be so lonely.”
― Albert Einstein
“The trouble is not that I am single and
likely to stay single, but that I am lonely and likely to stay lonely.”
― Charlotte Brontë
“Little minds are tamed and subdued by
misfortune; but great minds rise above it.”
― Washington Irving
“Chance favors those in motion.”
― James Austin
“Loneliness is the human condition.
Cultivate it. The way it tunnels into you allows your soul room to grow. Never
expect to outgrow loneliness. Never hope to find people who will understand
you, someone to fill that space. An intelligent, sensitive person is the
exception, the very great exception. If you expect to find people who will
understand you, you will grow murderous with disappointment. The best you’ll
ever do is to understand yourself, know what it is that you want, and not let
the cattle stand in your way.”
― Janet Fitch
“One travels more usefully when alone
because he reflects more.”
― Thomas Jefferson
“The most terrible poverty is
loneliness, and the feeling of being unloved.”
― Mother Teresa
“Start where you are. Distant fields always look greener, but
opportunity lies right where you are.”
― Robert J. Collier
“Most important things in the world have
been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no
help at all.”
― Dale Carnegie
“God, but life is loneliness, despite
all the opiates, despite the shrill tinsel gaiety of “parties” with no
purpose, despite the false grinning faces we all wear. And when at last you
find someone to whom you feel you can pour out your soul, you stop in shock at
the words you utter – they are so rusty, so ugly, so meaningless and feeble
from being kept in the small cramped dark inside you so long. Yes, there is
joy, fulfillment and companionship – but the loneliness of the soul in its
appalling self-consciousness is horrible and overpowering.”
― Sylvia Plath
“I am awfully greedy; I want everything
from life. I want to be a woman and to be a man, to have many friends and to
have loneliness, to work much and write good books, to travel and enjoy myself,
to be selfish and to be unselfish… You see, it is difficult to get all which I
want. And then when I do not succeed I get mad with anger.”
― Simone de Beauvoir
“We live as we dream–alone….”
― Joseph Conrad
“Too many of us are not living our
dreams because we are living our fears.”
― Les Brown
“I live in that solitude which is
painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity”
― Albert Einstein
“Take control of your destiny. Believe in yourself. Ignore those who try to discourage you. Avoid negative sources, people, places,
things and habits. Don’t give up and
don’t give in.”
― Wanda Hope Carter
“The best way out is always through.”
― Robert Frost
“Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned,
earned, or worn. It is the spiritual
experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude.”
― Denis Waitley
“When everything seems to be going
against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with
it.”
― Henry Ford
“He who is not courageous enough to take
risks will accomplish nothing in life.”
― Muhammad Ali
“Times may have changed, but there are
some things that are always with us – loneliness is one of them.”
― Laurie Graham
“Focus on where you’re
going and you’ll know what steps to take.
Focus on the steps you’re taking and you won’t know where you’re going.”
― Simon Sinek
“Empty pockets never
held anyone back. Only empty heads and
empty hearts can do that.”
― Norman Vincent Peale
“I find the best way to love someone is not to
change them, but instead, help them reveal the greatest version of themselves.”
― Steve Maraboli
“You can preach a better sermon with your life
than with your lips.”
― Oliver Goldsmith
“The shortest distance between two
people is a smile.”
― Victor Borge
“If one’s different, one’s bound to be
lonely.”
― Aldous Huxley
“I don’t know what’s worse: to not know
what you are and be happy, or to become what you’ve always wanted to be, and
feel alone.”
― Daniel Keyes
“Most of man’s trouble comes from his
inability to be still”
― Blaise Pascal
“Social acceptance, ‘being liked,’ has
so much power because it holds the feelings of loneliness at bay.”
― Rollo May
“When you have nobody you can make a cup
of tea for, when nobody needs you, that’s when I think life is over.”
― Audrey Hepburn
“Simply put, you believe that things or
people make you unhappy, but this is not accurate. You make yourself unhappy.”
― Wayne Dyer
“We must become so alone, so utterly
alone, that we withdraw into our innermost self. It is a way of bitter
suffering. But then our solitude is overcome, we are no longer alone, for we
find that our innermost self is the spirit, that it is God, the indivisible.
And suddenly we find ourselves in the midst of the world, yet undisturbed by
its multiplicity, for our innermost soul we know ourselves to be one with all
being.”
― Hermann Hesse
“May came home with a smooth round stone
as small as a world and as large as alone.”
― E.E. Cummings
“The best way to predict the future is
to create it.”
― Peter Drucker
“Man’s loneliness is but his fear of
life.”
― Eugene O’Neill
“What should young people do with their
lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create
stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured.”
― Kurt Vonnegut
“Everyone thinks of changing the world,
but no one thinks of changing himself.”
― Leo Tolstoy
“People use drugs, legal and illegal,
because their lives are intolerably painful or dull. They hate their work and
find no rest in their leisure. They are estranged from their families and their
neighbors. It should tell us something that in healthy societies drug use is
celebrative, convivial, and occasional, whereas among us it is lonely,
shameful, and addictive. We need drugs, apparently, because we have lost each
other.”
― Wendell Berry
“It’s not about time, it’s about
choices. How are you spending your choices?”
― Beverly Abamo
“It would be impossible to estimate how
much time and energy we invest in trying to fix, change and deny our emotions –
especially the ones that shake us at our very core, like hurt, jealousy,
loneliness, shame, rage and grief.”
― Debbie Ford
“What loneliness is more lonely than
distrust?”
― George Eliot
“Loneliness is, like, when you wish
someone else was there, and solitude is when you enjoy being alone. I don’t
always wanna be alone, but I definitely like pockets of solitude to recharge
and come back to myself. I think that’s so important for everyone.”
― Jonathan Van Ness
“We live in a society bloated with data
yet starved for wisdom. We’re connected 24/7, yet anxiety, fear, depression and
loneliness is at an all-time high. We must course-correct.”
― Elizabeth Kapu’uwailani Lindsey
“Too much self-centered attitude, you
see, brings, you see, isolation. Result: loneliness, fear, anger. The extreme
self-centered attitude is the source of suffering.”
― Dalai Lama
“Everybody has something that chews them
up and, for me, that thing was always loneliness. The cinema has the power to
make you not feel lonely, even when you are.”
― Tom Hanks
“Loneliness comes with life.”
― Whitney Houston
“I realize that I live on the bubble of
insanity. I feel the weight of human suffering, loneliness and despair on me
all the time. It’s not getting easier; if anything, it’s always right on the
edge of my skin.”
― Erwin McManus
“It would be really wonderful if people
connected to the loneliness of what it means to be a human being in the world
today.”
― Elisabeth Shue
“A year from now you will wish you had
started today.”
― Karen Lamb
“Loneliness is about the scariest thing
out there.”
― Joss Whedon
“There is no loneliness greater than the
loneliness of a failure. The failure is a stranger in his own house.”
― Eric Hoffer
“Pray that your loneliness may spur you
into finding something to live for, great enough to die for.”
― Dag Hammarskjold
“Nothing in this world can take the
place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful
men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.
Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and
determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan Press On! has solved and always
will solve the problems of the human race.”
― Calvin Coolidge
“Loneliness is never more cruel than
when it is felt in close propinquity with someone who has ceased to
communicate.”
― Germaine Greer
“As much as we complain about it,
though, there’s part of us that is drawn to a hurried life. It makes us feel
important. It keeps the adrenaline pumping. It means I don’t have to look too
closely at my heart or life. It keeps us from feeling our loneliness.”
― John Ortberg
“I’ve definitely had the long stretches
of time in my personal life where I’ve felt an intense loneliness and a
desperation to feel something real and to have something that truly meant
something in my life.”
― Brett Gelman
“The shortest distance between two
people is a smile.”
― Victor Borge
“Life shrinks or expands in proportion
to one’s courage.”
― Anais Nin
“I am not a product of my
circumstances. I am a product of my
decisions.”
― Stephen Covey
“The only person you are destined to
become is the person you decide to be.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson
“When I let go of what I am, I become
what I might be.”
― Lao Tzu
“There’s just an incredible amount of
loneliness as a mother, all this solitude no one really speaks to.”
― Catherine Reitman
“Limitations live only on our minds. But
if we user our imaginations, our possibilities become limitless.”
― Jamie Paolinetti
“Total intimacy is a myth; that said, a
particular kind of loneliness can be both beautiful and fruitful.”
― Lauren Groff
“Reading – the best state yet to keep
absolute loneliness at bay.”
― William Styron
“You may be disappointed if you fail,
but you are doomed if you don’t try.”
― Beverly Sills
“A lonely day is God’s way of saying
that he wants to spend some quality time with you.”
― Criss Jami
“When so many are lonely as seem to be
lonely, it would be inexcusably selfish to be lonely alone.”
― Tennessee Williams
“Half of the time I don’t know what
they’re talking about; their jokes seem to relate to a past that everyone but
me has shared. I’m a foreigner in the world and I don’t understand the
language.”
― Jean Webster
“Man was born for society. However
little He may be attached to the World, He never can wholly forget it, or bear
to be wholly forgotten by it. Disgusted at the guilt or absurdity of Mankind,
the Misanthrope flies from it: He resolves to become an Hermit, and buries
himself in the Cavern of some gloomy Rock. While Hate inflames his bosom,
possibly He may feel contented with his situation: But when his passions begin
to cool; when Time has mellowed his sorrows, and healed those wounds which He
bore with him to his solitude, think you that Content becomes his Companion?
Ah! no, Rosario. No longer sustained by the violence of his passions, He feels
all the monotony of his way of living, and his heart becomes the prey of Ennui
and weariness. He looks round, and finds himself alone in the Universe: The
love of society revives in his bosom, and He pants to return to that world which
He has abandoned. Nature loses all her charms in his eyes: No one is near him
to point out her beauties, or share in his admiration of her excellence and
variety. Propped upon the fragment of some Rock, He gazes upon the tumbling
waterfall with a vacant eye, He views without emotion the glory of the setting
Sun. Slowly He returns to his Cell at Evening, for no one there is anxious for
his arrival; He has no comfort in his solitary unsavoury meal: He throws
himself upon his couch of Moss despondent and dissatisfied, and wakes only to
pass a day as joyless, as monotonous as the former.”
― Matthew Gregory Lewis
“Character consists of what you do on
the third and fourth tries.”
― James A. Michener
“To Tennessee Williams we owe a special
debt. In a tragic age, he has transformed loneliness by naming it for us,
suffered sordidness with beauty, graced poor hurt lives with love and pity.”
― William Jay Smith
“Over time, loneliness gets inside you
and doesn’t go away.”
― Carlos Ruiz Zafón
“Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life.”
― Omar Khayyam
“The opposite of Loneliness is not Togetherness,
It’s Intimacy.”
― Richard Bach
“The man who fears to be alone will
never be anything but lonely, no matter how much he may surround himself with
people. But the man who learns, in solitude and recollection, to be at peace
with his own loneliness, and to prefer its reality to the illusion of merely
natural companionship, comes to know the invisible companionship of God. Such a
one is alone with God in all places, and he alone truly enjoys the
companionship of other men, because he loves them in God in Whom their presence
is not tiresome, and because of Whom his own love for them can never know
satiety.”
― Thomas Merton
“I have learned over the years that when
one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear.”
― Rosa Parks
“But there are other words for privacy
and independence. They are isolation and loneliness.”
― Megan Whalen Turner
“I was lonely. I felt it deeply and permanently,
that this state of being on my own might never disappear. But I welcomed the loneliness,
which had everything to do with being anonymous. It’s never loneliness that
nibbles away at a person’s insides, but not having room inside themselves to be
comfortably alone.”
― Rachel Sontag
“Companionship is a foreign concept to
some people. They fear it as much as the majority of people fear loneliness.”
― Criss Jami
“Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned,
earned or worn. It is the spiritual
experience of living every minute with love, grace and gratitude.”
― Denis Waitley
“The price of being a sheep is boredom.
The price of being a wolf is loneliness. Choose one or the other with great
care.”
― Hugh MacLeod
“When a man is one of a kind, he will be
lonely wherever he is.”
― Louis L’Amour
“Today the individual has become the
highest form, and the greatest bane, of artistic creation. The smallest wound
or pain of the ego is examined under a microscope as if it were of eternal
importance. The artist considers his isolation, his subjectivity, his
individualism almost holy. Thus we finally gather in one large pen, where we
stand and bleat about our loneliness without listening to each other and
without realizing that we are smothering each other to death. The
individualists stare into each other’s eyes and yet deny each other’s
existence. We walk in circles, so limited by our own anxieties that we can no
longer distinguish between true and false, between the gangster’s whim and the
purest ideal.”
― Ingmar Bergman
“When the chips are down, you are alone, and loneliness can be terrifying. Fortunately, I’ve always had a chum I could call. And I love to be alone. It doesn’t bother me one bit. I’m my own company.”
― Audrey Hepburn
“The soul hardly ever realizes it, but
whether he is a believer or not, his loneliness is really a homesickness for
God.”
― Hubert Van Zeller
“Sometimes being surrounded by everyone
is the loneliest, because you’ll realize you have no one to turn to.”
― Soraya
“We are all sentenced to solitary
confinement inside our own skins, for life.”
― Tennessee Williams
“Our language has wisely sensed these
two sides of man’s 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. Although, in daily life, we do not always distinguish
these words, we should do “So consistently and thus deepen our understanding of
our human predicament.”
― Paul Tillich
“Nothing limits achievements like small
thinking; nothing expands possibilities like unleashed imagination.”
― William Arthur Ward
“Until then I had always thought of
loneliness as something negative—an absence of company, and, of course,
something temporary… That day I had learned that it was much more. It was
something which could press and oppress, could distort the ordinary and play
tricks with the mind. Something which lurked inimically all around, stretching
the nerves and twanging them with alarms, never letting one forget that there
was no one to help, no one to care. It showed one as an atom adrift in
vastness, and it waited all the time its chance to frighten and frighten
horribly—that was what loneliness was really trying to do; and that was what
one must never let it do…”
― John Wyndham
“The privilege of a lifetime is being
who you are.”
― Joseph Campbell
“Isolation and loneliness are central causes of depression and despair.”
― Bell Hooks
“…Maybe instead of fire and brimstone,
hell is just a feeling of loneliness”
― Amy Huntley
“I believe that you control your
destiny, that you can be what you want to be. You can also stop and say, ‘No, I
won’t do it, I won’t behave his way anymore. I’m lonely and I need people
around me, maybe I have to change my methods of behaving,’ and then you do it.”
― Leo F. Buscaglia
“Loneliness is painful. But suffering is
not wrong in and of itself. It’s part of the human experience, and in a way
brings us closer to all people.”
― Juliette Fay
“Happiness is not a goal – it’s a
by-product of a life well lived.”
― Eleanor Roosevelt
“The worst kind of loneliness in the world is isolation that comes from being misunderstood. It can make people lose their grasp on reality.”
― Shyza Chaudhry
“He began to cry, not hysterically or
screaming as people cry when concealed rage with tears, but with continuous
sobs who has just discovered that he’s alone and will be for long. He cried
because safety and reason seemed to have left the world. Loneliness was a
reality, but in this situation madness was also remotely a possibility.”
― Stephen King
“He lived a quiet existence where the
future was easy to predict and the past was a cancer in remission. It was
meaningful, of course. But it was lonely.”
― Adelheid Manefeldt
“The worst loneliness is not to be
comfortable with yourself.”
― Mark Twain
“Success is stumbling from failure to
failure with no loss of enthusiasm.”
― Winston S. Churchill
“Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is a quiet voice at the end
of the day saying, “I will try again tomorrow””.
― Mary Anne Radmacher
“Our uniqueness makes us special, makes
perception valuable – but it can also make us lonely. This loneliness is
different from being ‘alone’: You can be lonely even surrounded by people. The
feeling I’m talking about stems from the sense that we can never fully share
the truth of who we are. I experienced this acutely at an early age.”
― Amy Tan
“You can get help from teachers, but you
are going to have to learn a lot by yourself, sitting alone in a room.”
― Dr. Seuss
“Let your hopes, not your hurts, shape
your future.”
― Robert H. Schuller
“Of what use to make heroic vows of
amendment, if the same old lawbreaker is to keep them?”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Friendship needs no words – it is
solitude delivered from the anguish of loneliness.”
― Dag Hammarskjold
“Selfishness is not living as one wishes
to live; selfishness is asking others to live as one wishes to live.”
― Oscar Wilde
“The way to get started is to quit
talking and begin doing.”
― Walt Disney
“Loneliness doesn’t have much to do with
where you are.”
― Hugh Hefner
“Not what we have but what we enjoy
constitutes our abundance.”
― Epicurus
“If a person will advance confidently in
the direction of their dream and endeavor to live the life they have imagined,
they will meet success unexpected in common hours.”
― Henry David Thoreau