Loneliness is the poverty of self; solitude is the richness of self.” – May Sarton

The most terrible poverty is loneliness, and the feeling of being unloved.” – Mother Teresa

“The surest cure for vanity is loneliness.” – Tom Wolfe

“Language… 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.” – Paul Tillich

“You cannot be lonely if you like the person you’re alone with.” – Wayne Dyer

“Being alone has a power few people can handle.” – Steven Aitchison

“there is a loneliness in this world so great that you can see it in the slow movement of the hands of a clock” ― Charles Bukowski, Love Is a Dog from Hell

“So many people are shut up tight inside themselves like boxes, yet they would open up, unfolding quite wonderfully, if only you were interested in them.”
― Sylvia Plath, Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams: Short Stories, Prose and Diary Excerpts

“I’ll never forget how the depression and loneliness felt good and bad at the same time. Still does.” ― Henry Rollins

“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

“The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.” — Friedrich Nietzsche

“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” – Blaise Pascal

“I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time. To be in company, even with the best, is soon wearisome and dissipating. I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.” Henry David Thoreau

“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.” – Marcus Aurelius

“Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.” – Simone Weil

“A man can be himself only so long as he is alone, and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom, for it is only when he is alone that he is really free.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

“The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes.” – William James

“Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.” – Voltaire

“If you’re lonely when you’re alone, you’re in bad company.” – Jean-Paul Sartre

“We’re born alone, we live alone, we die alone. Only through our love and friendship can we create the illusion for the moment that we’re not alone.” – Orson Welles

“If you meet a loner, no matter what they tell you, it’s not because they enjoy solitude. It’s because they have tried to blend into the world before, and people continue to disappoint them.” —Jodi Picoult

“The time you feel lonely is the time you most need to be by yourself. Life’s cruelest irony.” —Douglas Coupland

“Sometimes being surrounded by everyone is the loneliest, because you’ll realize you have no one to turn to.” —Soraya

“We are all alone, born alone, die alone, and—in spite of True Romance magazines—we shall all someday look back on our lives and see that, in spite of our company, we were alone the whole way. I do not say lonely—at least, not all the time—but essentially, and finally, alone. This is what makes your self-respect so important, and I don’t see how you can respect yourself if you must look in the hearts and minds of others for your happiness.” — Hunter S. Thompson

“Without great solitude, no serious work is possible.” – Pablo Picasso

​​”Solitude is fine but you need someone to tell that solitude is fine.” – Honoré de Balzac

“Loneliness is not lack of company, loneliness is lack of purpose.” – Guillermo Maldonado

“It would do the world good if every man would compel himself occasionally to be absolutely alone. Most of the world’s progress has come out of such loneliness.” – Bruce Barton

“The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.” —Michel de Montaigne

“All great and precious things are lonely.” —John Steinbeck

“Why do people have to be this lonely? What’s the point of it all? Millions of people in this world, all of them yearning, looking to others to satisfy them, yet isolating themselves. Why? Was the earth put here just to nourish human loneliness?” ― Haruki Murakami, Sputnik Sweetheart

“
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, White Oleander

“We live as we dream–alone….” ― Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

I’ve never been lonely. I’ve been in a room — I’ve felt suicidal. I’ve been depressed. I’ve felt awful — awful beyond all — but I never felt that one other person could enter that room and cure what was bothering me…or that any number of people could enter that room. In other words, loneliness is something I’ve never been bothered with because I’ve always had this terrible itch for solitude. It’s being at a party, or at a stadium full of people cheering for something, that I might feel loneliness. I’ll quote Ibsen, “The strongest men are the most alone.” I’ve never thought, “Well, some beautiful blonde will come in here and give me a fuck-job, rub my balls, and I’ll feel good.” No, that won’t help. You know the typical crowd, “Wow, it’s Friday night, what are you going to do? Just sit there?” Well, yeah. Because there’s nothing out there. It’s stupidity. Stupid people mingling with stupid people. Let them stupidify themselves. I’ve never been bothered with the need to rush out into the night. I hid in bars, because I didn’t want to hide in factories. That’s all. Sorry for all the millions, but I’ve never been lonely. I like myself. I’m the best form of entertainment I have. Let’s drink more wine!” ― Charles Bukowski