Quotessence
Home / Topics / Solitude Quotes

Solitude Quotes

Browse 3554 quotes about Solitude.

Related topics

Solitude Quotes

“Consider A Move The steady time of being unknown, in solitude, without friends, is not a steadiness that sustains. I hear your voice waver on the phone: Haven't talked to anyone for days. I drive around. I sit in parking lots. The voice zeroes through my ear, and waits. What should I say? There are ways to meet people you will want to love? I know of none. You come out stronger having gone through this? I no longer believe that, if I once did. Consider a move, a change, a job, a new place to live, someplace you'd like to be. That's not it, you say. Now time turns back. We almost touch. Then what is? I ask. What is?”

“There must be different kinds of loneliness, or at least different degrees of loneliness, but the most terrifying loneliness is not experienced by everyone and can be understood by only a few. I compare the panic in this kind of loneliness to the dog we see running frantically down the road pursuing the family car. He is not really being left behind, for the family knows it is to return, but for that moment in his limited understanding, he is being left alone forever, and he has to run and run to survive. It is no wonder that we make terrible choices in our lives to avoid loneliness.”

“What she did learn from all the books with something else, something she hadn't really been expecting, which was that the story of loneliness is much longer than the story of life. In the sense of what most people mean by living, she said. Without children or partner, without meaningful family or home, a day can an eternity: a life without those things is a life without a story, a life in which there is nothing - no narrative flights, no plot development, no immersive human dramas - to alleviate the cruelly meticulous passing of time. Just his work... and in the end she had the feeling that he done more of that than anyone had any use for.”

“His act was rather that of a harmless lunatic than an enemy. We were not so new to the country as not to know that the solitary life of many a plainsman had a tendency to develop eccentricities of conduct and character not always easily distinguishable from mental aberration. A man is like a tree: in a forest of his fellows he will grow as straight as his generic and individual nature permits; alone, in the open, he yields to the deforming stresses and tortions that environ him.”

“I have had similar experiences as Jack Kerouac had while living alone. You do love your solitude and get time for yourself. You have all the time in the world for writing down your thoughts and experiences. You feel inspired to write them all down about your feelings, emotions, and happenings. But at times the loneliness does get to you! And sometimes you just keep staring at the sky to find the meaning of life.”

“Perhaps the moon, surrounded by stars, feels lonely too. They share no common bond, no shared experience. Perhaps, this isolation drives her to circle the Earth, seeking a genuine friend. At night, the world slumbers, leaving her alone. But occasionally, she finds someone awake, and they confide in her. They share their problems, their loneliness, and she listens intently. Though unable to express her own emotions, she finds solace in their words. For in their loneliness, she sees she's not alone. Their struggles mirror hers, and in that reflection, her isolation fades. Maybe, this silent companionship is enough. Maybe, it's precisely what she needs to feel less lonely.”

“It's a funny thing about being alone. You never really notice it when it's happening. You're aware that nobody else is there, but [...] as with wading into cold water, you acclimate to the relative solitude until it doesn't even bother you anymore. You don't realize that your hands and toes have grown numb until there is a sudden burst of warmth that sends needles through your extremities.”