Loneliness And Solitude Quotes

Remember that although the distinction can be difficult to draw, loneliness and solitude are different. ~ Gretchen Rubin

The association between failure, loneliness, and solitude is so strong in our culture that people often find it difficult to believe that there are some who like being by themselves. ~ Suzanne Gordon

Loneliness and solitude are two different things. When you are lonely, it is easy to delude yourself into believing that you are on the right path. Solitude is better for us, as it means being alone without feeling lonely. But eventually it is best to find a person, the person who will be your mirror. Remember, only in another person's heart can you truly see yourself and the presence of God within you ~ Elif Shafak

There's a difference between loneliness and solitude. ~ Jennifer E. Smith

Solitude with God repairs the damage done by the fret and noise and clamour of the world. ~ Oswald Chambers

Loneliness is equal to the radius of one's awareness. ~ Yoko Ono

The Christian life was never meant to be lived alone. Together we're a body. A family. The people of God. ~ Matthew West

Man loves company - even if it is only that of a small burning candle. ~ Georg C. Lichtenberg

Bhutan all but bases its identity upon its loneliness, and its refusal to b assimilated into India, or Tibet, or Nepal. Vietnam, at present, is a pretty girl with her face pressed up against the window of the dance hall, waiting to be invited in; Iceland is the mystic poet in the corner, with her mind on other things. Argentina longs to be part of the world it left and, in its absence, re-creates the place it feels should be its home; Paraguay simply slams the door and puts up a Do Not Disturb sign. Loneliness and solitude, remoteness and seclusion, are many worlds apart. ~ Pico Iyer

But if we don't have experience with solitude - and this is often the case today - we start to equate loneliness and solitude. This reflects the impoverishment of our experience. If we don't know the satisfactions of solitude, we only know the panic of loneliness. ~ Sherry Turkle

In a society where people are obsessed with personal space, dogs have come to serve as welcome, neo-human mediators of loneliness and solitude. ~ Okey Ndibe

The very fine line between loneliness and solitude, reflection; being alone, always appealed to me when I was a kid. ~ Brad Mehldau

Loneliness can be conquered only by those who can bear solitude. ~ Paul Tillich

I want to be left alone. ~ Greta Garbo

I owe everything that I have done to the fact that I am very much at ease being alone. ~ Marilynne Robinson

In solitude the mind gains strength and learns to lean upon itself. ~ Laurence Sterne

A bore is someone who deprives you of solitude without providing you with company. ~ Oscar Wilde

Be able to be alone. Lose not the advantage of solitude, and the society of thyself. ~ Thomas Browne

Be a loner. That gives you time to wonder, to search for the truth. Have holy curiosity. Make your life worth living. ~ Albert Einstein

if we don't have experience with solitude - and this is often the case today - we start to equate loneliness and solitude. ~ Sherry Turkle

Loneliness, when accepted, becomes a gift that will lead us to find a purpose in life. ~ Paulo Coelho

Cultivate solitude and quiet and a few sincere friends, rather than mob merriment, noise and thousands of nodding acquaintances. ~ William Powell

Only in solitude do we find ourselves; and in finding ourselves, we find in ourselves all our brothers in solitude. ~ Miguel De Unamuno

Oh to have a lodge in some vast wilderness. Where rumors of oppression and deceit, of unsuccessful and successful wars may never reach me anymore. ~ William Cowper

The great omission in American life is solitude; not loneliness, for this is an alienation that thrives most in the midst of crowds, but that zone of time and space, free from the outside pressures, which is the incubator of the spirit. ~ Marya Mannes

Loneliness is a drug, a narcotic; it grows through veins, through nerves and muscles; it assumes some right of possession over your body and mind; it feeds itself, and creates its own requirement. Loneliness and solitude are walls. ~ R.J. Ellory

In the temple of his spirit, each man is alone. ~ Ayn Rand

I was never less alone than when by myself. ~ Edward Gibbon

Aloneness can lead to loneliness. God's preventative for loneliness is intimacy - meaningful, open, sharing relationships with one another. In Christ we have the capacity for the fulfiling sense of belonging which comes from intimate fellowship with God and with other believers. ~ Neil T. Anderson

This was the sound he cherished when alone in the stillness of his rooms. He sought and guarded the stillness, so that it might prevail there till the inevitable sounds of life, once more, comparatively coarse and harsh, should smother and deaden it - doubtless by the same process with which they would officiously heal the ache in his soul that was somehow one with it. ~ Henry James

While Mum was a busy working mother, helping my father in his constituency duties and beyond, Lara became my surrogate mum. She fed me almost every supper I ate--from when I was a baby up to about five years old. She changed my nappies, she taught me to speak, then to walk (which, with so much attention from her, of course happened ridiculously early). She taught me how to get dressed and to brush my teeth.
In essence, she got me to do all the things that either she had been too scared to do herself or that just simply intrigued her, such as eating raw bacon or riding a tricycle down a steep hill with no brakes.
I was the best rag doll of a baby brother that she could have ever dreamt of.
It is why we have always been so close. To her, I am still her little baby brother. And I love her for that. But--and this is the big but--growing up with Lara, there was never a moment's peace. Even from day one, as a newborn babe in the hospital's maternity ward, I was paraded around, shown off to anyone and everyone--I was my sister's new "toy." And it never stopped.
It makes me smile now, but I am sure it is why in later life I craved the peace and solitude that mountains and the sea bring. I didn't want to perform for anyone, I just wanted space to grow and find myself among all the madness.
It took a while to understand where this love of the wild came from, but in truth it probably developed from the intimacy found with my father on the shores of Northern Ire ~ Bear Grylls

The path you walk is unique and needed. There is no other like yours. On your path you experience love, joy and peace, as well as loneliness, sadness and torment. These all are specific lessons you choose to rediscover your divine identity. ~ Raphael Zernoff

I wonder about everyone I meet and everyone I've ever met and I wonder how they are, what they're doing, if they're happy, if they're with someone. I hope they are. I hope they're all happy. I hope they're all with someone. ~ Charlotte Eriksson

Sometimes, the loneliness probably got to be too much and anyone seemed better than no one. ~ Gena Showalter

Selfish desire ultimately desires itself You find yourselfin your desire, so do not say that desire is vain. Ifyou desire yoursel£ you produce the divine son in your embrace with yourself Your desire is the father of the God, your self is the mother of the God, but the son is the new God, your master.
If you embrace your sel£ then it will appear to you as if the world has become cold and empty The cOlning God moves into this emptiness.
If you are in your solitude, and all the space around you has become cold and unending, then you have moved far from men, and at the same time you have come near to them as never before. Selfish desire only" apparently led you to men, but in reality it led you away from them and in the end to yoursel£ which to you and to others was the most remote. But now, if you are in solitude, your God leads you to the God of others, and through that to the true neighbor, to the neighbor of the self in others.
If you are in yoursel£ you become aware of your incapacity. You will see how little capable you are of imitating the heroes and ofbeing a hero yourself So you will also no longer force others to become heroes. Like you, they suffer from incapacity Incapacity; too, wants to live, but it will overthrow your Gods. ~ C.G. Jung

'Tis they who are in their own chambers haunted By thoughts that like unbidden guests intrude, And sit down, uninvited and unwanted, And make a nightmare of the solitude. ~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Needless to say, I had been alone on other occasions during the year. Needless to say, my girlfriend was only two hours away by plane. Needless to say, after a busy day, what could be better than a stroll through the narrow streets and lanes of the old city, without having to talk to anyone, simply enjoying the beauty around me. And yet the feeling that surfaced was one of oppressive, distressing loneliness – not having someone with whom I could share the city, the walk, the things I'd like to say.

..there is nothing worse than the feeling that no one cares whether we exist or not, that no one is interested in what we have to say about life, and that the world can continue turning without our awkward presence. ~ Paulo Coelho

There are times i wish i was a master magician so i could disappear into the folds of time, without consequence, without missing a beat. As an introvert, i need so much time to myself. I feel expansive and peaceful in my own space, constricted and chained, when confined to social situations. I can't blossom when pressed against everyone else. ~ Jaeda DeWalt

Politically I am neither left nor right! And this kind of political-ethical standpoint
being in the middle
usually brings about seclusion and isolation! But now I do not mind it anymore and, instead, I work more and more in my self-made solitude! ~ Javad Alizadeh

Someone is about to give away the mystery of loneliness and then the train comes. A reason for living, the train comes, why she never loved him, the train comes, source of hope, train, lifetime of regret, train, never-ending heartache, train, train, train, train train. ~ Xuan Juliana Wang

One day, I will wake up with a terrible longing for you. And in some corner of the world, your heart will skip several beats at the thought of my name. And you'll finally know what I meant when I said: When you stand near a burning pyre, the heat tends to rub off on you. ~ Ayushee Ghoshal

Who can really distinguish between the sea and what's reflected in it? Or tell the difference between the falling rain and loneliness? ~ Haruki Murakami

Only incorrigible bohemians find it boring or laughable when a man of talent outgrows the libertine chrysalis stage and begins to perceive and express the dignity of the intellect, adopting the courtly ways of a solitude replete with bitter suffering and inner battles though eventually gaining a position of power and honor among men. ~ Thomas Mann

Find company within yourself and you'll never spend a day alone. Find love within yourself and you'll never have a lonely day. ~ Connor Chalfant

I try to factor solitude into my life because more and more, that's becoming a very precious and rare commodity. ~ Robyn Davidson

Only writing could soak up his loneliness and pain. Written words could tell him who he was. ~ Don DeLillo

I didn't really get the chance to talk to girls. I was a straight boy with hormones kicking in, and I wanted to talk to girls, but they weren't interested in talking back to me, so there was a real sense of loneliness. ~ Andy Biersack

On the one hand we can't be alone, people like us; on the other we can't stand company. We can't stand male company, which bores us to death, or female company either. I gave up male company for years because it's totally unprofitable, and female company gets on my nerves in no time. ~ Thomas Bernhard

We must die alone. To the very verge of the stream our friends may accompany us; they may bend over us, they may cling to us there; but that one long wave from the sea of eternity washes up to the lips, sweeps us from the shore, and we go forth alone! In that untried and utter solitude, then, what can there be for us but the pulsation of that assurance, I am not alone, because the Father is with me! ~ Edwin Hubbel Chapin

We are things of dry hours and the involuntary plan,
Grayed in, and gray. ~ Gwendolyn Brooks

We can all nod and smile and carry on our end of the conversation in an endless loop while our minds float somewhere outside our bodies. We are thinking about our kids, about finances and fiancees and soon-to-be ex wives, about the sex we're not having, the sex our soon-to-be ex wives are having, about loneliness and love and death and Dad, and this constant crowd is like a fog on a dark road; you just keep driving and watch it dissipate in your low beams. ~ Jonathan Tropper

Many persons seek community because they are afraid of loneliness...those who take refuge in community while fleeing from themselves are misuing it to indulge in empty talk and distraction, no matter how spiritual this idle talk and distraction may appear...it is precisely such misuse of community that creates deadly isolation of human beings. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer

I believe that getting stuck is often an essential part of the creative process. And when we are stuck - if we have managed to escape the heave and rush of the world, if we have managed to secure solitude and quiet and space without time - then our minds can roam and explore and invent in unfettered freedom. But too often we dread being stuck. Especially our students and young people. We believe that if we are stuck we are failed. On the contrary, we should welcome getting stuck. We should embrace getting stuck. That's when discovery begins. ~ Alan Lightman

Alone is how she feels, alone is how she'll always be. You're used to solitude, she tells herself. Be a stoic.
Then she's enfolded.
She'd waited so long, she'd given up waiting. She'd longed for this, and denied it was possible. But now how easy it is, like coming home must have been once, for those who'd had homes. Walking through the doorway into the familiar, the place that knows you, opens to you, allows you in. Tells you the stories you've needed to hear. Stories of the hands as well, and of the mouth.
I've missed you. Who said that?
A shape against the night window, glint of an eye. Dark heartbeat.
Yes. At last. It's you. ~ Margaret Atwood

The human soul is not framed for continued proximity, and the result of this enforced neighbourhood is often an appalling loneliness for which the rules of the game forbid assuagement. ~ Iris Murdoch

May came home with a smooth round stone
as small as a world and as large as alone. ~ E. E. Cummings

I could tell you of occasionally, every eon, meeting a person, with whom I might stay for a billion years. But what of it? After a billion years there is nothing left to say, and you wander apart, uncaring in the end. ~ Steven L. Peck

I am never alone wherever I am. The air itself supplies me with a century of love. When I breathe in, I am breathing in the laughter, tears, victories, passions, thoughts, memories, existence, joys, moments, and the hues of the sunlight on many tones of skin; I am breathing in the same air that was exhaled by many before me. The air that bore them life. And so how can I ever say that I am alone? ~ C. JoyBell C.

We waste so much energy trying to cover up who we are when beneath every attitude is the want to be loved, and beneath every anger is a wound to be healed and beneath every sadness is the fear that there will not be enough time.
When we hesitate in being direct, we unknowingly slip something on, some added layer of protection that keeps us from feeling the world, and often that thin covering is the beginning of a loneliness which, if not put down, diminishes our chances of joy.
It's like wearing gloves every time we touch something, and then, forgetting we chose to put them on, we complain that nothing feels quite real. Our challenge each day is not to get dressed to face the world but to unglove ourselves so that the doorknob feels cold and the car handle feels wet and the kiss goodbye feels like the lips of another being, soft and unrepeatable. ~ Mark Nepo

I recall my sometimes acutely painful feelings of loneliness and of longing for someone with whom I could share thoughts, interests, and feelings. By sixteen I had accepted the idea that loneliness was a weakness and longing for human intimacy represented a failure of independence. I did not hold this view consistently, but I held it some of the time, and when I did, I had no answer to the pain except to tense my body against it, contract my breathing, reproach myself, and look for a distraction. I tried to convince myself I did not care. In effect, I clung to alienation as a virtue. ~ Nathaniel Branden

In recovery, we try to take the opposite of our character defects/shortcomings and turn them into principles. For example, we work to change fear into faith, hate into love, egoism into humility, anxiety and worry into serenity, complacency into action, denial into acceptance, jealousy into trust, fantasizing into reality, selfishness into service, resentment into forgiveness, judgmentalism into tolerance, despair into hope, self-hate into self-respect, and loneliness into fellowship. Through this work we learn to understand the principles of our program. ~ Anonymous

But in the morning Lust is always furtive. It dresses as mechanically as it undressed and heads straight for the door, to return to its own solitude. Like all the sins, it also makes us solitary. It is self-abdication at the very core of one's own being, a surrender of our need and ability to give and receive. Lust does not come with open hands, certainly not with an open heart. It comes only with open legs. ~ Henry Fairlie

Loneliness is at the heart of Ender's Game, and the reason it works so well is because it carries with it the firm assurance that even though Ender never feels himself to belong,the reader knows he does belong, that he is the ultimate insider even though he stands outside. ~ Orson Scott Card

For in the end, freedom is a personal and lonely battle; and one faces down fears of today so that those of tomorrow might be engaged. ~ Alice Walker