The end comes when we no longer talk with ourselves. It is the end of genuine thinking and the beginning of the final loneliness.
—Eric Hoffer (1902–83) American Philosopher, Author
The gift of loneliness is sometimes a radical vision of society or one’s people that has not previously been taken into account.
—Alice Walker (b.1944) American Novelist, Activist
You cannot be lonely if you like the person you’re alone with.
—Wayne Dyer (1940–2015) American Self-Help Author
The surest cure for vanity is loneliness.
—Thomas Wolfe (1900–38) American Novelist
Loneliness is something you can’t walk away from.
—William Feather (1889–1981) American Publisher, Author
It would do the world good if every man in it would compel himself occasionally to be absolutely alone. Most of the world’s progress has come out of such loneliness.
—Bruce Fairchild Barton (1886–1967) American Author, Advertising Executive, Politician
Loneliness does not come from having no people about one, but from being unable to communicate the things that seem important to oneself, or from holding certain views which others find inadmissible.
—Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961) Swiss Psychologist, Psychiatrist, Philosopher
We are never the same with others as when we are alone. We are different, even when we are in the dark with them.
—Maurice Maeterlinck (1862–1949) Belgian Poet, Playwright, Essayist
Strife is better than loneliness.
—Irish Proverb
Loneliness is the first thing which God’s eye named, not good
—John Milton (1608–74) English Poet, Civil Servant, Scholar, Debater
No one ever discovers the depths of his own loneliness.
—Georges Bernanos (1888–1948) French Author
Pray that your loneliness may spur you into finding something to live for, great enough to die for.
—Dag Hammarskjold (1905–61) Swedish Statesman, UN Diplomat
We are most of us very lonely in this world; you who have any who love you, cling to them and thank God.
—Unknown
We’re all lonely for something we don’t know we’re lonely for. How else to explain the curious feeling that goes around feeling like missing somebody we’ve never even met?
—David Foster Wallace (1962–2008) American Novelist, Essayist
At the innermost core of all loneliness is a deep and powerful yearning for union with one’s lost self.
—Brendan Behan (1923–64) Irish Poet, Novelist, Playwright
Isolation is the sum total of wretchedness to a man.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the spaces between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.
—Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American Poet
Loneliness is the most terrible poverty.
—Mother Teresa (1910–97) Roman Catholic Missionary, Nun
The dread of loneliness is greater than the fear of bondage, so we get married.
—Cyril Connolly (1903–74) British Literary Critic, Writer
The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature. As long as this exists, and it certainly always will, I know that then there will always be comfort for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances may be. And I firmly believe that nature brings solace in all troubles.
—Anne Frank (1929–45) Holocaust Victim
There is no God, no universe, no human race, no earthly life, no heaven, no hell. It is all a dream, a grotesque and foolish dream. Nothing exists but you. And you are but a thought—a vagrant thought, a useless thought, a homeless thought, wandering forlorn among the empty eternities!
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
It is loneliness that makes the loudest noise. This is as true of men as of dogs.
—Eric Hoffer (1902–83) American Philosopher, Author
Loneliness is never more cruel than when it is felt in close propinquity with someone who has ceased to communicate.
—Germaine Greer (b.1939) Australia Academic, Journalist, Scholar, Writer
Loneliness is the ultimate poverty
—Pauline Phillips (Abigail van Buren) (b.1918) American Columnist
Language has created the word “loneliness” to express the pain of being alone, and the word “solitude” to express the glory of being alone.
—Paul Tillich (1886–1965) American Lutheran Theologian, Philosopher
What makes loneliness an anguish is not that I have no one to share my burden, but this: I have only my own burden to bear.
—Dag Hammarskjold (1905–61) Swedish Statesman, UN Diplomat
When thinking about companions gone, we feel ourselves doubly alone.
—Walter Scott (1771–1832) Scottish Novelist, Poet, Playwright, Lawyer
We’re all in this alone.
—Lily Tomlin (b.1939) American Comedy Actress
We’re all of us sentenced to solitary confinement inside our own skins, for life!
—Tennessee Williams (1911–83) American Playwright
To live alone is the fate of all great souls.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German Philosopher
All alone! Whether you like it or not, alone is something you’ll be quite a lot.
—Theodor Seuss Geisel (‘Dr. Seuss’) (1904–91) American Children’s Books Writer, Writer, Cartoonist, Animator
If you are afraid of being lonely, don’t try to be right.
—Jules Renard (1864–1910) French Writer, Diarist
People think they know me, but they don’t. Not really. Actually, I am one of the loneliest people on this earth. I cry sometimes, because it hurts. It does. To be honest, I guess you could say that it hurts to be me.
—Michael Jackson (1958–2009) American Singer-Songwriter
Lonely people, in talking to each other can make each other lonelier.
—Lillian Hellman (1905–84) American Playwright, Dramatist, Memoirist
The essence of this man [Richard M. Nixon] is loneliness.
—Henry Kissinger (b.1923) American Diplomat, Academician
What loneliness is more lonely than distrust?
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist
Loneliness breaks the spirit.
—Yiddish Proverb
It is strange to be known so universally and yet to be so lonely.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
When so many are lonely as seem to be lonely, it would be inexcusably selfish to be lonely alone.
—Tennessee Williams (1911–83) American Playwright
A man is never completely alone in this world. At the worst, he has the company of a boy, a youth, and by and by a grown man—the one he used to be.
—Cesare Pavese (1908–50) Italian Novelist, Poet, Critic, Translator
I’m afraid sometimes you’ll play lonely games too, games you can’t win because you’ll play against you.
—Theodor Seuss Geisel (‘Dr. Seuss’) (1904–91) American Children’s Books Writer, Writer, Cartoonist, Animator
You can get help from teachers, but you are going to have to learn a lot by yourself, sitting alone in a room.
—Theodor Seuss Geisel (‘Dr. Seuss’) (1904–91) American Children’s Books Writer, Writer, Cartoonist, Animator
One aged man—one man—can’t fill a house.
—Robert Frost (1874–1963) American Poet
A lonely man is a lonesome thing, a stone, a bone, a stick, a receptacle for Gilbey’s gin, a stooped figure sitting at the edge of a hotel bed, heaving copious sighs like the autumn wind.
—John Cheever (1912–82) American Novelist, Short-story Writer
All men are lonely. But sometimes it seems to me that we Americans are the loneliest of all. Our hunger for foreign places and new ways has been with us almost like a national disease. Our literature is stamped with a quality of longing and unrest, and our writers have been great wanderers.
—Carson McCullers (1917–67) American Novelist
Be good and you will be lonely.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
I was never less alone than when by myself.
—Edward Gibbon (1737–94) English Historian, Politician
Only in a house where one has learnt to be lonely does one have this solicitude for things. One’s relation to them, the daily seeing or touching, begins to become love, and to lay one open to pain.
—Elizabeth Bowen (1899–1973) Irish Novelist, Short-story Writer
It’s a terrible thing to be alone—yes it is—it is—but don’t lower your mask until you have another mask prepared beneath—as terrible as you like—but a mask.
—Katherine Mansfield (1888–1923) New Zealand-born British Author
Every time I look at you I get a fierce desire to be lonesome.
—Oscar Levant (1906–72) American Musician, Composer, Author, Comedian, Actor