Loneliness is a universally felt human experience that often leads to depression and anxiety as noted by the American Psychological Association.
However, reading quotes about loneliness can provide hope and resilience during periods of isolation.
These quotes can offer various benefits: they provide perspective, boost self-awareness, reassure readers that they’re not alone and highlight the distinction between deliberate solitude and loneliness.
As humans, we are inherently social and these quotes primarily discuss the implications of feeling disconnected.
Related: Smile Quotes and Karma Quotes
Writers, poets and philosophers have extensively delved into the topic of loneliness throughout history and their quotes can be a source of solace and understanding for those experiencing isolation.
Whether it’s due to specific circumstances or an overall feeling of disconnectedness, everyone experiences loneliness at some point and these quotes aim to help navigate those feelings.
Best Lonely Quotes
1. “The soul that sees beauty may sometimes walk alone.” ~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe.
2. “The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.” ~ Michel de Montaigne.
3. “In solitude the mind gains strength and learns to lean upon itself.” ~ Laurence Sterne.
4. “It is better to be lonely than allow people who are not going anywhere keep you from your destiny.” ~ Joel Osteen.
5. “It takes nothing to join the crowd. It takes everything to stand alone.” ~ Hans F. Hansen.
6. “If you smile when you are alone then you really mean it.” ~ Andy Rooney.
7. “There’s nothing abnormal about loneliness.” ~ Paula Stokes.
8. “If you are afraid of being lonely don’t try to be right.” ~ Jules Renard.
9. “Loneliness adds beauty to life. It puts a special burn on sunsets and makes night air smell better.” ~ Henry Rollins.
Great Lonely Quotes
10. “Loneliness is and always has been the central and inevitable experience of every man.” ~ Thomas Wolfe.
11. “Loneliness is not lack of company, loneliness is lack of purpose.” ~ Guillermo Maldonado.
12. “Nothing can bring you peace but yourself.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson.
13. “Solitude is different from loneliness, and it doesn’t have to be a lonely kind of thing.” ~ Fred Rogers.
14. “The empty, the angry, the lonely, the tricked, we are all museums of fear.” ~ Charles Bukowski.
15. “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
16. “Writing fiction, especially a long work of fiction, can be a difficult, lonely job; it’s like crossing the Atlantic Ocean in a bathtub. There’s plenty of opportunity for self-doubt.” ~ Stephen King
17. “You’re not supposed to have iron bars around you – no one is supposed to have that. You’re supposed to fall down hills and get lonely, and find your own food and get wet when it rains. That’s what happens when you’re alive.” ~ Sonya Hartnett.
Famous Lonely Quotes
18. “Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.” ~ Carl Sagan
19. “He was a lonely ghost uttering a truth that nobody would ever hear. But so long as he uttered it, in some obscure way the continuity was not broken. It was not by making yourself heard but by staying sane that you carried on the human heritage.” ~ George Orwell
20. “If a man knows more than others, he becomes lonely.” ~ C.G. Jung
21. “Don’t let ignorance blind you. Open your eyes, heart and your mind. And if you’re feeling alone, know that the world can be a lonely place, but it would be lonelier without you in it.” ~ Hayley Williams
22. “Doubt is a pain too lonely to know that faith is his twin brother.” ~ Khalil Gibran
23. “Find your own Calcutta. Find the sick, the suffering and the lonely right there where you are.” ~ Mother Teresa
24. “I see myself forever and ever as the ridiculous man, the lonely soul, the wanderer, the restless frustrated artist, the man in love with love, always in search of the absolute, always seeking the unattainable.” ~ Henry Miller.
Popular Lonely Quotes
25. “It’s better to be dead, or even perfectly well, than to suffer from the wrong affliction. The man who owns up to arthritis in a beri-beri year is as lonely as a woman in a last month’s dress.” ~ John Forbes Nash
26. “The farther one gets into the wilderness, the greater is the attraction of its lonely freedom.” ~ Theodore Roosevelt
27. “We’re all lonely for something we don’t know we’re lonely for. How else to explain the curious feeling that goes around feeling like missing somebody we’ve never even met?” ~ David Foster Wallace
28. “The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be.” ~ Anne Frank
29. “The trouble is not that I am single and likely to stay single, but that I am lonely and likely to stay lonely.” ~ Charlotte Brontë
30. “Dark and lonely. I need somebody to hold me.” ~ Lana Del Rey.
31. “Cycling can be lonely, but in a good way.” ~ David Byrne.
32. “I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion.” ~ Henry David Thoreau.
Inspiring Lonely Quotes
33. “What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut
34. “I have never found a companion that was so companionable as solitude. We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers. A man thinking or working is always alone, let him be where he will.” ~ Henry David Thoreau
35. “The road to death is a lonely highway, and longer than it appears, even when it leads straight down from the scaffold, by way of a rope; and it’s a dark road, with never any moon shining on it, to light your way.” ~ Margaret Atwood
36. “Oh, no, I think I’d die on my own. I’d be so lonely. Even at home, I’m lonely. I sit in my room and sometimes cry. It is so hard to make friends, and there are some things you can’t talk to your parents or family about. I sometimes walk around the neighborhood at night, just hoping to find someone to talk to. But I just end up coming home.” ~ Michael Jackson
37. “I dwell in a lonely house, I know that vanished many a summer ago.” ~ Robert Frost
38. “I’m lonely like Adam and you’re evil like Eve.” ~ Elvis Presley
39. “At night in this part of the West the stars, as I had seen them in Wyoming, were as big as Roman Candles and as lonely as the Prince who’s lost his ancestral home and journeys across the spaces trying to find it again, and knows he never will.” ~ Jack Kerouac
40. “Being the boss anywhere is lonely. Being a female boss in a world of mostly men is especially so.” ~ Robert Frost.
41. “Its beautiful to be alone. To be alone does not mean to be lonely. it means the mind is not influenced and contaminated by society.” ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti.
42. “I’m all alone, but I’m not lonely.” ~ Haruki Murakami.
43. “The happiest of all lives is a busy solitude.” ~ Voltaire.
44. “Writing, at its best, is a lonely life.” ~ Ernest Hemingway.
45. “All great and precious things are lonely.” ~ John Steinbeck.
46. “Do not feel lonely on the road of righteousness Because of the fewness of the walkers on it.” ~ Ali ibn Abi Talib.
Top Lonely Quotes
47. “If one’s different, one’s bound to be lonely.” ~ Aldous Huxley.
48. “I’m afraid that sometimes you’ll play lonely games too. Games you can’t win ’cause you’ll play against you.” ~ Dr. Seuss.
49. “If you came to see the truth, the purity, it’s here inside a lonely heart.” ~ Michael Jackson.
50. “A tramp, a gentleman, a poet, a dreamer, a lonely fellow, always hopeful of romance and adventure.” ~ Charlie Chaplin.
51. “I’ve never been lonely. I like myself. I’m the best form of entertainment I have. Let’s drink more wine!” ~ Charles Bukowski.
52. “No one can tell what goes on in between the person you were and the person you become. No one can chart that blue and lonely section of hell. There are no maps of the change. You just come out the other side. Or you don’t.” ~ Stephen King.
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Understanding Loneliness
Loneliness is more than just physical solitude; it’s a complex emotional state where individuals feel isolated, unwanted, and disconnected from others despite a desire for connections.
This emotional state often makes it harder to establish and maintain social relationships.
Health Implications of Loneliness
Loneliness has been linked to significant health risks, including increased chances of premature death, mental health disorders like depression and anxiety, cardiovascular diseases, and neurodegenerative diseases.
A report by the US Surgeon General highlights the severe impacts of loneliness on both mental and physical health, urging immediate attention to this public health issue.
Causes of Loneliness
Various factors contribute to loneliness, ranging from external situations like moving to a new city or experiencing a divorce, to internal factors such as low self-esteem or depression.
Personality traits, such as introversion, can also make individuals more prone to feeling lonely due to their natural tendency to seek fewer social interactions.
Loneliness vs. Solitude
It’s important to distinguish between loneliness and solitude.
While loneliness is an unwanted lack of connection and isolation, solitude is a voluntary state where individuals enjoy being alone and can use this time to recharge, maintaining their ability to engage socially when they choose to.
Strategies to Combat Loneliness
Overcoming loneliness requires proactive efforts, such as engaging in community services, joining groups with shared interests, and nurturing quality relationships.
Recognizing loneliness as a sign that changes are needed, people can gradually build a supportive network that enhances their well-being.
Online therapy options like Talkspace and BetterHelp also offer accessible support to those feeling isolated.
Top Questions about Being Lonely
A: A lonely person is someone who feels unhappy due to isolation or a lack of companionship. This state of loneliness often stems from not having anyone to communicate with or feeling deserted.
A: The term “very lonely” describes a deep, often depressing sense of solitude. It refers to being without companionship or support and can involve feeling disconnected and isolated, even in a crowd.
A: Yes, loneliness can be considered a mood. It is a state of being where a person feels a significant lack of connection with others, which is not just a fleeting feeling but a more persistent state that affects one’s overall emotional condition.
A: Yes, feeling alone is a common experience that varies greatly from person to person. It is a normal response when our social needs, such as the need for meaningful relationships and interactions, are not fulfilled.
A: Not directly, but loneliness and boredom can be interconnected. Loneliness might lead to boredom due to a lack of social interaction and meaningful activity, and similarly, boredom can make one feel lonely if there are no others to share experiences with.
A: Lonely people often engage in activities to distract themselves from their feelings of isolation. This might include immersing themselves in hobbies, such as collecting items or traveling alone, as a way to cope with their solitude.
