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Loneliness Quotes

Browse 4676 quotes about Loneliness.

Loneliness Quotes

“I write because I want to end my loneliness. Books make people less alone. That, before and after everything else, is what books do. They show us that conversations are possible across distances.”

People Want Writing Book Ends Shows Loneliness Conversation Distance Before And After

Author:Jonathan Safran Foer

“Conversation enriches the understanding, but solitude is the school of genius.”

Wisdom School Understanding Loneliness Genius Solitude Conversation Mindfulness Single Being Single Feeling Lonely Loneliness And Solitude

Book:The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

“The telephone conversation is, by its very nature, reactive, not reflective. Immediacy is its prime virtue. ... The letter, written in absorbed solitude, is an act of faith: it assumes the presence of humanity: world and self are generated from within: loneliness is courted, not feared. To write a letter is to be alone with my thoughts in the conjured presence of another person. I keep myself imaginative company. I occupy the empty room.”

World Writing Persons Self Humanity Rooms Company Virtue Written Loneliness Solitude Conversation Empty Letters Assuming Prime Telephones My Thoughts Imaginative Immediacy Empty Rooms

Author:Vivian Gornick

“I get inspired by so many things every single day. Things I see every day, conversations, arguments, day to day occurrences, good days, bad days, loneliness, happiness, anger, anxiety, pressure, relationships......EVERYTHING.”

Loneliness Conversation Anxiety Argument Pressure Inspired Day To Day Good Day Bad Day

Author:Ricki-Lee Coulter

“Mr. Franzen said he and Mr. Wallace, over years of letters and conversations about the ethical role of the novelist, had come to the joint conclusion that the purpose of writing fiction was “a way out of loneliness.” (NY Times article on the memorial service of David Foster Wallace.)”

Way Writing Years Said Purpose Fiction Roles Loneliness Conversation Letters Conclusion Novelists Ethical Articles Joints Memorial Writing Fiction Memorial Service Purpose Of Writing

Author:Jonathan Franzen

“Conversations are efforts toward good relations. They are an elementary form of reciprocity. They are the exercise of our love for each other. They are the enemies of our loneliness, our doubt, our anxiety, our tendencies to abdicate. To continue to be in good conversation over our enormous and terrifying problems is to be calling out to each other in the night. If we attend with imagination and devotion to our conversations, we will find what we need; and someone among us will act—it does not matter whom—and we will survive.”

“SOLIDAO, LONELINESS. What is it that we call loneliness. It can't simply be the absence of others, you can be alone and not lonely, and you can be among people and yet be lonely. So what is it? ... it isn't only that others are there, that they fill up the space next to us. But even when they celebrate us or give advice in a friendly conversation, clever, sensitive advice: even then we can be lonely. So loneliness is not something simply connected with the presence of others or with what they do. Then what? What on earth?”

People Giving Earth Next Space Advice Loneliness Conversation Lonely Connected Absence Clever Celebrate Sensitive Friendly

Author:Pascal Mercier

“loneliness has its roots in words,in internal conversation that nodbody answers,solitude has it's roots in the great silence of eternity.”

Answers Silence Loneliness Solitude Conversation Roots Eternity Internals

Author:Miley Cyrus

“Solitude is a condition of peace that stands in direct opposition to loneliness. Loneliness is like sitting in an empty room and being aware of the space around you. It is a condition of separateness. Solitude is becoming one with the space around you. It is a condition of union. loneliness is small, solitude is large. loneliness closes in around you; solitude expands toward the infinite. loneliness has its roots in words, in an internal conversation that nodbody answers; solitude has it's roots in the great silence of eternity.”

Source: Simple Truths: Clear and Simple Guidance on the Big Issues in Life

“The American appetite for loneliness impressed me, and there was something about this solitude that freed conversation. One night at a bar, I met a man, and within five minutes he explained that he had just been released from prison. Another drinker told me that his wife had passed away, and he had recently suffered a heart attack, and now he hoped that he would die within the year. I learned that there's no reliable small talk in America; at any moment a conversation can become personal.”

“Most of the writers I know are weird hybrids. There's a strong streak of egomania coupled with extreme shyness. Writing's kind of like exhibitionism in private. And there's also a strange loneliness, and a desire to have some kind of conversation with people, but not a real great ability to do it in person.”

People Knows Writing Kind Persons Real Desire Strong Ability Loneliness Strange Conversation Extremes Shyness Streaks Hybrid Exhibitionism Egomania

Author:David Foster Wallace

“I am, I must confess, suspicious of those who denounce others for having too much sex. At what point does a healthy amount become too much? There are, of course, those who suffer because their desire for sex has become compulsive; in their case the drive (loneliness, guilt) is at fault, not the activity as such. When morality is discussed I invariably discover, halfway into the conversation, that what is meant are not the great ethical questions but the rather dreary business of sexual habit, which to my mind is an aesthetic rather than an ethical issue.”

“People had tried to reel Raphael in from his silence. Their attempts were precisely why he felt so uncomfortable. He did not want to be saved or included. He liked to listen. When he asked a question, it was because he wanted to know the answer. But then they turned it around to ask, “What about you?” and this bothered Raphael, who believed the speaker only returned the question out of manners and so was never a real inquiry. Raphael would be pressured to respond and endure the painful seconds of saying something someone did not want to hear. He would trace their faltering eyes, then his words would crumble into sand, and his listener would never notice because they were not interested in the first place.”

Relationships Friendship Silence Sadness Society Loneliness Solitude Conversation Dating Shyness

Book:A Happy Ghost

Source: A Happy Ghost

“We have to be careful how we treat others. The human brain is a sensitive flesh that can be punctured by a single event. Based on your sentence, you can leave someone an insult they’ll never forget. You can sometimes hear this frailty when shy voices ask things like: “Can I have another bite?”, “Please call me back” or “What days do you work?”

Pain Relationships Memories Sadness Loneliness Conversation Trauma Sensitivity The Goodbye Song Insults

Book:The Goodbye Song

Source: The Goodbye Song