best quotations about
Solitude |
| 104 quotes | Visits: 18,393 |
Quotations
 | All of humanity’s problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone. — Blaise Pascal, 1623-1662, French thinker 29 likes |
 | He who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god. — Aristotle, 384-322 BC, Ancient Greek philosopher 19 likes |
 | If you are afraid of loneliness, don't marry. — Anton Chekhov, 1860-1904, Russian writer 18 likes |
 | If you cannot live alone, you were born a slave. — Fernando Pessoa, 1888-1935, Portuguese poet & writer 15 likes |
 | God created man, and finding him not sufficiently alone, gave him a female companion so that he might feel his solitude more acutely. — Paul Valery, 1871-1945, French poet 15 likes |
 | The worst loneliness is to not be comfortable with yourself. — Mark Twain, 1835-1910, American writer 14 likes |
 | A man can be himself only so long as he is alone. — Arthur Schopenhauer, 1788-1860, German philosopher 12 likes |
 | I hate who steals my solitude, without really offer me in exchange company. — Friedrich Nietzsche, 1844-1900, German philosopher 10 likes |
 | Without great solitude, no serious work is possible. — Pablo Picasso, 1881-1973, Spanish painter 9 likes |
 | Conversation enriches the understanding, but solitude is the school of genius. — Edward Gibbon, 1737-1794, English historian 9 likes |
| Solitude desolates me; company oppresses me. — Fernando Pessoa, 1888-1935, Portuguese poet & writer 8 likes |
 | 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, 1902-1983, American writer & philosopher 7 likes |
| As I shall lie in the grave alone, so in fact I live alone. — Anton Chekhov, 1860-1904, Russian writer 7 likes |
 | Solitude is fine, but you need someone to tell you that solitude is fine. — Honoré de Balzac, 1799-1850, French writer 7 likes |
 | There are two kinds of loneliness: one that comes from ourselves and one that comes from others. — Maurice Chapelan, 1906-1992, French author of maxims & journalist 6 likes |
 | Solitude cherishes great virtues and destroys little ones. — Sydney Smith, 1771-1845, British writer & cleric 6 likes |
| To live alone one must be an animal or a god - says Aristotle. There is yet a third case: one must be both: a philosopher. — Friedrich Nietzsche, 1844-1900, German philosopher 6 likes |
 | I had a lot of dates, but I decided to stay home and dye my eyebrows. — Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American artist 6 likes |
 | What is necessary, after all, is only this: solitude, vast inner solitude. To walk inside yourself and meet no one for hours –that is what you must be able to attain. To be solitary as you were when you were a child. — Rainer Maria Rilke, 1875-1926, Czech-German poet 6 likes |
 | You can forget who you are if you're alone too much. — Margaret Atwood, 1939 -, Canadian writer 6 likes |
| Great men are like eagles, and build their nest on some lofty solitude. — Arthur Schopenhauer, 1788-1860, German philosopher 5 likes |
 | Solitude, the safeguard of mediocrity, is to genius the stern friend. — Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1884, American philosopher 5 likes |
 | It is better to be alone than in bad company. — George Washington, 1732-1799, the first American President 5 likes |
 | Solitude is the mother of anxieties. — Publilius Syrus, 1st cent. AD, Roman author of maxims 5 likes |
| Love consists in this, that two solitudes protect and touch and greet each other. — Rainer Maria Rilke, 1875-1926, Czech-German poet 5 likes |
 | He who is alone in happiness will be alone in misery as well. — Stefan Zweig, 1881-1942, Austrian writer 5 likes |
 | He makes a solitude, and calls it - peace! — Lord Byron, 1788-1824, British poet 4 likes |
 | Solitude vivifies; isolation kills. — Joseph Roux, 1834-1905, French clergyman & poet 4 likes |
 | He who does not fill his world with phantoms remains alone. — Antonio Porchia, 1885-1968, Italian-Argentinian poet 4 likes |
 | Solitude would be an ideal state if one were able to pick the people one avoids. — Karl Kraus, 1874-1936, Austrian writer 4 likes |
 | Alone, adj. In bad company. — Ambrose Bierce, 1842–1914, American writer 4 likes |
 | Loneliness does not come from having no people around, but from being unable to communicate the things that seem important to oneself, or from holding certain views which others find inadmissible. — Karl Jung, 1875-1961, Swiss psychiatrist 4 likes |
 | Tears do not burn except in solitude. — Emile M. Cioran, 1911-1995, French-Romanian philosopher 3 likes |
| In Moscow you sit in a huge room at a restaurant; you know no one and no one knows you, and at the same time you don't feel a stranger. But here you know everyone and everyone knows you, and yet you are a stranger… A stranger, and lonely. — Anton Chekhov, 1860-1904, Russian writer 3 likes |
 | One can acquire everything by solitude, except character. — Stendhal, 1783-1842, French writer 3 likes |
 | Loneliness as a situation can be corrected, but as a state of mind it is an incurable illness. — Vladimir Nabokov, 1899-1977, Russian-American writer 3 likes |
 | Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong. — Winston Churchill, 1874-1965, British Prime Minister, Nobel 1953 3 likes |
 | I long for solitude and yet I cannot stand it. — Eugene Ionesco, 1912-1994, French-Romanian playwright 3 likes |
 | The two conditions that lead others to languor – i.e. leisure and solitude – him made sharper. — Cicero, 106-43 BC, Roman orator & statesman (on Scipio) 3 likes |
| You know, what’s so dreadful about dying is that you are completely on your own. — Vladimir Nabokov, 1899-1977, Russian-American writer 3 likes |
 | What remains is solitude. — Marlen Dietrich, 1901-1992, German-American actress 3 likes |
 | People who do a job that claims to be creative have to be alone to recharge their batteries. You can’t live 24 hours a day in the spotlight and remain creative. For people like me, solitude is a victory. — Karl Lagerfeld, 1933-2019, German fashion designer 3 likes |
| The end comes when we no longer talk with ourselves. It is the end of genuine thinking and the beginning of the final loneliness. — Edward Gibbon, 1737-1794, English historian 3 likes |
 | Man's loneliness is but his fear of life. — Eugene O’Neill, 1888-1953, American playwright, Nobel 1936 2 likes |
 | The neurotic always wishes people would let him alone - until they do. — Mignon McLaughlin, 1913-1983, American magazine editor 2 likes |
 | He never felt loneliness except when he was happy. — Ayn Rand, 1905-1982, American writer & philosopher 2 likes |
 | Which is worth more, a crowd of thousands, or your own genuine solitude? — Rumi, 1207-1273, Persian mystic & poet 2 likes |
 | I don’t feel guilt at being unsociable, though I may sometimes regret it because my loneliness is painful. But when I move into the world, it feels like a moral fall – like seeking love in a whorehouse. — Susan Sontag, 1933-2004, American writer, critic, activist 2 likes |
 | If you are idle, be not solitary; if you are solitary be not idle. — Samuel Johnson, 1709-1784, English writer 2 likes |
 | I don't recommend being a bachelor, but it helps if you want to write. — Nelson Algren, 1909-1981, American writer 2 likes |
 | 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, 1932-1963, American poet & writer 1 likes |
 | We are never completely alone: unfortunately, we are always with ourselves. — Marguerite Yourcenar, 1903-1987, French writer 1 likes |
| My emotional life: dialectic between craving for privacy and need to submerge myself in a passionate relationship to another. — Susan Sontag, 1933-2004, American writer, critic, activist 1 likes |
 | Real loneliness is not necessarily limited to when you are alone. |
 | Writing is a fine thing, because it combines the two pleasures of talking to yourself and talking to a crowd. |
 | Writing is utter solitude, the descent into the cold abyss of oneself. |
 | One of the greatest diseases is to be nobody to anybody. — Mother Teresa, 1910-1997, Albanian-Indian nun & missionary |
| The most terrible poverty is loneliness, and the feeling of being unloved. — Mother Teresa, 1910-1997, Albanian-Indian nun & missionary |
 | In utter loneliness a writer tries to explain the inexplicable. |
| All great and precious things are lonely. |
 | To be an adult is to be alone. |
 | The more powerful and original a mind, the more it will incline towards the religion of solitude. |
| Because deep down, and precisely for the deepest and most important things, we are unquestionably alone. |
| And you should not let yourself be confused in your solitude by the fact that there is something in you that wants to move out of it. |
| The highest form of love is to be the protector of another person’s solitude. |
| Make your ego porous. Will is of little importance, complaining is nothing, fame is nothing. Openness, patience, receptivity, solitude is everything. |
 | All of our unhappiness comes from our inability to be alone. |
 | He only felt his loneliness after his third gin. |
 | The worst suffering is in the loneliness that accompanies it. |
 | Writing is the most fun you can have by yourself. |
 | Dreams have only one owner at a time. That’s why dreamers are lonely. |
 | To be free is often to be lonely. |
 | The hermit believes he has found God because he has found loneliness. |
 | There is no loneliness like the loneliness of a dead marriage. |
| It is heresy in America to embrace any way of life except as half of a couple. Solitude is un-American. |
 | Perhaps only people who are capable of real togetherness have that look of being alone in the universe. The others have a certain stickiness, they stick to the mass. |
 | Solitude is independence. |
| As a body everyone is single, as a soul never. |
 | The essence of Richard Nixon is loneliness. |
 | I can give you my loneliness, my darkness, the hunger of my heart, I am trying to bribe you with uncertainty, with danger, with defeat. |
 | An artist is always alone – if he is an artist. No, what the artist needs is loneliness. |
 | People doomed to live 100 years of solitude have no second chance on this earth. |
| There's no greater misfortune than dying alone. |
| The secret of a good old age is simply an honorable pact with solitude. |
 | Be alone, that is the secret of invention; be alone, that is when ideas are born. |
 | I love solitude but I prize it most when company is available. — Saul Bellow, 1914-2005, Canadian-American writer, Nobel 1976 |
 | From childhood’s hour I have not been. As others were, I have not seen. As others saw, I could not awaken. My heart to joy at the same tone. And all I loved, I loved alone. |
| I wanted to be where nobody I knew could ever come. |
 | I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone, because I am the person I know best. |
| People empty me. I have to get away to refill. |
 | A multitude of people and yet a solitude. |
| I care for no man on earth, and no man on earth cares for me |
 | 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. |
Personal Stories
| I only go out to get me a fresh appetite for being alone. — Lord Byron, 1788-1824, British poet 5 likes |
Quotes in Verse
 | Let's exchange body and loneliness. I shall give you despair to stop being an animal, you will give me strength to stop being a wreck. — Dinos Christianopoulos, 1931-2020, Greek poet 7 likes |
 | With no consideration, no pity, no shame, they have built walls around me, thick and high. — Constantine Kavafy, 1868-1933, Greek poet ‐ Walls 4 likes |
| I have no ambitions nor desires To be a poet is not my ambition, It's simply my way of being alone. — Fernando Pessoa, 1888-1935, Portuguese poet & writer 4 likes |
 | Who hears music feels his solitude Peopled at once. — Robert Browning, 1812-1889, British poet 3 likes |
 | What I like is my loneliness. No one comes close. |
| I am too alone in the world, and yet not alone enough to make every hour holy. |
 | I myself am hell; nobody's here. |
| Of all abstract nouns does it matter to exclude loneliness? |
Ancient Greek
 | It is horrible for a woman to stay home alone without a man. Το μεν γυναίκα πρώτον άρσενος δίχα ήσθαι δόμοις έρημον έκπαγλον κακόν. — Aeschylus, 525-456 BC, Ancient Greek tragedian 2 likes |
Proverbs
 | Even in paradise it is not good to be alone. 9 likes |
