LONELINESS QUOTES III

quotations about loneliness

loneliness quote

Everyone's alone -- or so it seems to me.
They make noises, and think they are talking to each other;
They make faces, and think they understand each other.
And I'm sure they don't. Is that a delusion?

T. S. ELIOT

The Cocktail Party


Physical distance between people has nothing to do with loneliness. It's psychic distance.

ROBERT M. PIRSIG

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Tags: Robert M. Pirsig


Loneliness is one of the bugbears of mankind. With some people, it is a constant source of unhappiness. They make plans, sometimes exceedingly complex, to keep it at bay. They think that it lies outside. It really lies within their own consciousness.

JOHN DANIEL BARRY

"Loneliness", Reactions and Other Essays


Loneliness
Got a mind of its own
The more people around
The more you feel alone

BOB DYLAN

"Marchin' to the City", The Bootleg Series

Tags: Bob Dylan


Loneliness is never more cruel than when it is felt in close proximity with someone who has ceased to communicate.

GERMAINE GREER

The Female Eunuch

Tags: Germaine Greer


He felt the cold silence between worlds, the thrust of rocketships, the harsh, glamorous loneliness.

RAYMOND Z. GALLUN

"Prodigal's Aura"


The Loneliness One dare not sound --
And would as soon surmise
AS in its Grave go plumbing
To ascertain the size --
The Loneliness whose worst alarm
Is lest itself should see --
And perish from before itself
For just a scrutiny --
The Horror not to be surveyed --
But skirted in the Dark --
With Consciousness suspended --
And Being under Lock --
I fear me this -- is Loneliness --
The Maker of the soul
Its Caverns and its Corridors
Illuminate -- or seal --

EMILY DICKINSON

"The Loneliness One Dare Not Sound", Poems

Tags: Emily Dickinson


What loneliness is more lonely than distrust?

GEORGE ELIOT

Middlemarch

Tags: George Eliot


We are lonesome animals. We spend all our life trying to be less lonesome. One of our ancient methods is to tell a story begging the listener to say -- and to feel -- "Yes, that's the way it is, or at least that's the way I feel it. You're not as alone as you thought."

JOHN STEINBECK

"In Awe of Words", The Exonian, 1930

Tags: John Steinbeck


There was nothing lonelier than a man with a million friends.

WILLIAM SHATNER

The Ashes of Eden

Tags: William Shatner


All the suffering that humanity ever knew can be traced to the one fact that no man in the history of the Galaxy ... could really understand one another. Every human being lived behind an impenetrable wall of choking mist within which no other but he existed.

ISAAC ASIMOV

Second Foundation

Tags: Isaac Asimov


Loneliness is a prerequisite for freedom. Freedom depends on the ability to reflect, and reflection can only begin when one is alone.

GAO XINGJIAN

speech presented on receiving the Golden Plate Award at the Forty-first International Achievement Summit of the American Academy of Achievement, Jun. 8, 2002

Tags: Gao Xingjian


Self is the only prison that can ever bind the soul.

HENRY VAN DYKE

"The Prison and the Angel"

Tags: Henry Van Dyke


The feeling of loneliness is unique to humans. A tree or a bird may seem to be lonely, but this is an attribute bestowed by the person making the observation. The tree or the bird is incapable of perceiving loneliness. This feeling occurs when a person is alone, and, moved by his emotions, associates his own circumstances with those of the bird or the tree that he sees before him. Since this feeling entails an element of self-examination, it is not a purely objective observation. The feeling of loneliness produced is thus a form of aesthetics, in that while observing one's external environment, one is at the same time examining the self that is located within it, and to a certain extent this is an affirmation of one's own personal worth.

GAO XINGJIAN

speech presented on receiving the Golden Plate Award at the Forty-first International Achievement Summit of the American Academy of Achievement, Jun. 8, 2002


No one ever discovers the depths of his own loneliness.

GEORGES BERNANOS

The Diary of a Country Priest

Tags: Georges Bernanos


And I was alone, had been for a while, and might be for a while, but it no longer frightened me the way it had. I was discovering something terrifyingly simple: there was absolutely nothing I could do about it. I was discovering this in the way, I suppose, that everybody does, but having tried, endlessly, to do something about it.

JAMES BALDWIN

Just Above My Head

Tags: James Baldwin


I felt a haunting loneliness sometimes, and felt it in others--young clerks in the dusk, wasting the most poignant moments of night and life.

F. SCOTT FITZGERALD

The Great Gatsby

Tags: F. Scott Fitzgerald


It is loneliness that makes the loudest noise. This is as true of men as of dogs.

ERIC HOFFER

"Thoughts of Eric Hoffer", The New York Times Magazine, Apr. 25, 1971

Tags: Eric Hoffer


If one's different, one's bound to be lonely.

ALDOUS HUXLEY

Brave New World

Tags: Aldous Huxley


Each way means loneliness -- and communion.

T. S. ELIOT

The Cocktail Party

Tags: T. S. Eliot