Ever found yourself surrounded by people yet feeling like you’re alone in this world? I know I have!

Yes, loneliness has that strange way of sneaking into our lives, reminding us of the quiet corners of our souls, and leaving us with nothing but our thoughts as our only companions.

Some of the world’s greatest minds have also felt the pangs of being alone in a crowded room and they’ve perfectly described this feeling in the quotes you’ll find below.

Uncover the insights and comfort these loneliness quotes offer to the solitary traveler within you!

Contents show

10 Amazing Loneliness Quotes

1. “Find company within yourself and you’ll never spend a day alone. Find love within yourself and you’ll never have a lonely day.” — Connor Chalfant

A guy standing by the sea on a cloudy day representing an amazing loneliness quote

2. “There is a loneliness in this world so great that you can see it in the slow movement of the hands of a clock.” — Charles Bukowski

3. “There is a difference between loneliness and solitude, one will empty you and one will fill you. You have the power to choose.” ― AVA

4. “Love is not blind but if the heart has to choose between pain and loneliness, it will choose pain every time.” ― J. Autherine

5. “Loneliness is no respecter of persons. It invades the palace as well as the hut.” ― Billy Graham

6. “The trouble is not really in being alone, it’s being lonely. One can be lonely in the midst of a crowd, don’t you think?” ― Christine Feehan

7. “All great and precious things are lonely.” ― John Steinbeck

8. “What a lovely surprise to finally discover how unlonely being alone can be.” — Ellen Burstyn

9. “Loneliness is and always has been the central and inevitable experience of every man.” — Thomas Wolfe

10. “The voice of life in me cannot reach the ear of life in you; but let us talk that we may not feel lonely.” ― Khalil Gibran

Quotes About What Loneliness Feels Like

1. “What does it feel like to be lonely? It feels like being hungry: like being hungry when everyone around you is readying for a feast.” ― Olivia Laing

A girl standing by a window representing a loneliness quote

2. “The worst thing about loneliness is that it brings one face to face with oneself.” ― Mary Balogh

3. “Sometimes being surrounded by everyone is the loneliest, because you’ll realize you have no one to turn to.” ― Soraya

4. “What makes loneliness an anguish is not that I have no one to share my burden, but this: I have only my own burden to bear.” ― Dag Hammarskjöld

5. “I’ll never forget how the depression and loneliness felt good and bad at the same time. Still does.” — Henry Rollins

6. “The pain of being alone is completely out of this world, isn’t it? I don’t know why but I understand your feelings so much it actually hurts.” — Masashi Kishimoto

7. “We are all so much together, but we are all dying of loneliness.” — Albert Schweitzer

8. “There are two kinds of loneliness: one you feel you are all alone; the other you feel in a crowded room when you realize you are the only person who knows what it’s like to be you.” — Atticus

9. “There were people everywhere but no one was mine, and I was no one’s.” ― Gregory Maguire

10. “Tore up my heart and shut it down. Nothing to do, nowhere to be. A simple little kind of free. Nothing to do, no one but me, and that’s all I need. I’m perfectly lonely.” — John Mayer

11. “Loneliness is like being the only person left alive in the universe, except that everyone else is still here.” ― Simon Van Booy

12. “Loneliness becomes an acid that eats away at you.” — Haruki Murakami

13. “Loneliness is a state of feeling that can be changed. People may still feel lonely even among the crowd.” ― Toba Beta

14. “Yes there is joy, fulfillment, and companionship — but the loneliness of the soul in its appalling self-consciousness is horrible and overpowering.” — Sylvia Plath

15. “Loneliness is the prison of the human spirit. When we are lonely, we pace back and forth in small, shut-in worlds.” ― John Joseph Powell

16. “I don’t know why I still feel this pit in my stomach whenever I get a moment to think. I know what the pit is, too; I feel lonely. But I’m not alone, I keep telling myself.” ― Pittacus Lore

17. “It’s never loneliness that nibbles away at a person’s insides, but not having room inside themselves to be comfortably alone.” ― Rachel Sontag

18. “The worst kind of loneliness in the world is the isolation that comes from being misunderstood. It can make people lose their grasp on reality.” ― Shyza Chaudhry

19. “Loneliness is about the scariest thing out there.” — Joss Whedon

20. “The loneliest moment in someone’s life is when they are watching their whole world fall apart and all they can do is stare blankly.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald

21. “Anyone who knows how scary it is to be alone, can’t help loving others.” ― Natsuki Takaya

22. “I realize for the first time how very lonely I’ve been in the arena. How comforting the presence of another human being can be.” — Suzanne Collins

23. “Life is full of misery loneliness and suffering — and it’s all over much too soon.” — Woody Allen

24. “Loneliness, she said, is when nothing will stick to you, when nothing will thrive around you, when you start to think that you kill things just by being there.” ― Rachel Cusk

25. “Some nights are made for torture or reflection or the savoring of loneliness.” — Poppy Z. Brite

26. “Being alone has a power that very few people can handle.” — Steven Aitchison

27. “I’m lonely. And I’m lonely in some horribly deep way and for a flash of an instant, I can see just how lonely, and how deep this feeling runs. And it scares the sh#t out of me to be this lonely because it seems catastrophic.” ― Augusten Burroughs

28. “I felt like a kid standing in the world’s greatest video arcade without any quarters, unable to do anything but walk around and watch the other kids play.” ― Ernest Cline

29. “Some people can’t stand being alone. I love solitude and silence. But when I come out of it, I’m a regular talking machine. It’s all or nothing for me.” — Celine Dion

30. “This world that I live in is empty and cold. The loneliness cuts me and tortures my soul.” — Waylon Jennings

31. “All these people moving through life, all around me, and no one, not a single person, knows what I’m going through.” ― Lee Thompson

32. “All I ever wanted was to reach out and touch another human being not just with my hands but with my heart.” — Tahereh Mafi

33. “The most terrible poverty is loneliness and the feeling of being unloved.” — Mother Teresa

34. “Depression on my left, Loneliness on my right. They don’t need to show me their badges. I know these guys very well.” — Elizabeth Gilbert

35. “There is something immaculate about loneliness which only lonely people can understand.” — Munia Khan

36. “Solitude is pleasant. Loneliness is not.” — Anna Neagle

37. “When you’re surrounded by all these people, it can be lonelier than when you’re by yourself. You can be in a huge crowd, but if you don’t feel like you can trust anyone or talk to anybody, you feel like you’re really alone.” ― Fiona Apple

38. “There is nothing more lonely or terrifying than feeling unheard.” — House of Cards

39. “I like being alone. I have control over my own sh#t. Therefore, in order to win me over, your presence has to feel better than my solitude. You’re not competing with another person, you’re competing with my comfort zones.” — Horacio Jones

40. “When I feel lonely inside, nobody knows it. I never let on. I always cover it up. It eats me up.” — Mike Gillespie

41. “Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.” ― Maya Angelou

42. “I get so lonely sometimes, I could put a box on my head and mail myself to a stranger.” — Mary Karr

43. “Nothing is quite as bad as being without privacy and lonely at the same time.” ― Alexander Theroux

44. “I can’t really have any friends. It’s sad, really. It’s lonely. But that’s how I am.” — Randy Moss

45. “Only the thirsty knows the real taste of water; only the lonely knows the real weight of emptiness!” ― Mehmet Murat ildan

Inspirational Quotes About Loneliness

1. “A season of loneliness and isolation is when the caterpillar gets its wings. Remember that next time you feel alone.” — Mandy Hale

A woman sitting by the sea during sunset

2. “The soul that sees beauty may sometimes walk alone.” — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

3. “Loneliness adds beauty to life. It puts a special burn on sunsets and makes night air smell better.” — Henry Rollins

4. “It is better to be lonely than allow people who are not going anywhere keep you from your destiny.” — Joel Osteen

5. “Sometimes you need to take a break from everyone and spend time alone to experience, appreciate, and love yourself.” — Robert Tew

6. “Inside myself is a place where I live all alone and that’s where you renew your springs that never dry up.” — Pearl Buck

7. “The strongest man in the world is he who stands most alone.” — Henrik Ibsen

8. “If you want to miss your crown follow the crowd. If you want to wear the crown, go alone and be yourself.” — Israelmore Ayivor

9. “To live alone is the fate of all great souls.” — Arthur Schopenhauer

10. “If you go deeper and deeper into your own heart, you’ll be living in a world with less fear, isolation and loneliness.” — Sharon Salzberg

11. “Never search for your happiness in others, it will make you feel alone. Search it in yourself, you will feel happy even when you are left alone.” — Awesomequotesforyou.com

12. “When we cannot bear to be alone, it means we do not properly value the only companion we will have from birth to death — ourselves.” — Eda J. LeShan

13. “It’s easy to stand in the crowd but it takes courage to stand alone.” — Mahatma Gandhi

14. “When you are lonely for a while don’t get restless, if you had born alone, you are going to die alone then for some time you can certainly live alone.” ― Amit Kalantri

15. “Sometimes you need to sit lonely on the floor in a quiet room in order to hear your own voice and not let it drown in the noise of others.” — Charlotte Eriksson

16. “My inspirations are the woman, friendship, and loneliness.” — Enrique Iglesias

17. “Loneliness is painful. But suffering is not wrong in and of itself. It’s part of the human experience, and in a way brings us closer to all people.” ― Juliette Fay

18. “When everything is lonely I can be my best friend.” — Conor Oberst

19. “Pray that your loneliness may spur into finding something to live for, great enough to die for.” — Dag Hammarskjold

20. “Don’t fear solitude: If you are never alone, you cannot know yourself. But don’t get too attached to it — it may become an addiction.” — Paulo Coelho

21. “Solitude is the beginning of all freedom.” — William Orville Douglas

22. “I live in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity” — Albert Einstein

23. “If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities.” — Maya Angelou

24. “I tell you loneliness is the thing to master. Courage and fear, love, death, are only parts of it and can easily be ruled afterwards. If I make myself master my own loneliness there will be peace or safety: and perhaps these are the same.” — Martha Gellhorn

25. “The loneliness you feel is actually an opportunity to reconnect with others and yourself.” — Maxime Lagacé

26. “Solitude is independence.” — Herman Hesse

27. “If I could always read, I should never feel the want of company.” ― George Gordon Byron

28. “There are people who like to be alone without feeling lonely at all.” ― Toba Beta

29. “Make the time to be alone. Your best ideas live within solitude.” — Robin Sharma

30. “I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.” ― Henry David Thoreau

31. “Sometimes it’s better to be alone no one can hurt you that way.” — Tinku Razoria

32. “Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ, and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.” — C. S. Lewis

33. “Lonely was much better than alone.” — Toni Morrison

34. “There’s a special quality to the loneliness of dusk, a melancholy more brooding even than the night’s.” — Ed Gorman

35. “There are some places in life where you can only go alone. Embrace the beauty of your solo journey.” ― Mandy Hale

36. “Being human means having the capacity to be lonely; loneliness is part of what it means to be human.” — J. Ellsworth Kalas

37. “It would do the world good if every man would compel himself occasionally to be absolutely alone. Most of the world’s progress has come out of such loneliness.” — Bruce Barton

38. “The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.” — Friedrich Nietzsche

39. “Great men are like eagles, and build their nest on some lofty solitude.” — Arthur Schopenhauer

40. “Maybe true love isn’t out there for me, but I can sublimate my loneliness with the notion that true love is out there for someone.” — Roxane Gay

41. “I’ve also seen that great men are often lonely. This is understandable because they have built such high standards for themselves that they often feel alone. But that same loneliness is part of their ability to create.” — Yousuf Karsh

42. “You cannot be lonely if you like the person you’re alone with.” — Wayne W. Dyer

43. “Loneliness is cured by contact with yourself.” — Sven Schnieders

44. “We can never be afraid to stand up for what is right, no matter what others may say. And sometimes, if that means taking a lonely road, if what we are standing for is true, then perhaps moonlight or sunshine will light our way and make it less lonely.” — Pramila Jayapal

45. “Be a loner. That gives you time to wonder, to search for the truth. Have holy curiosity. Make your life worth living.” — Albert Einstein

Encouraging Loneliness Quotes To Make You Feel Better

1. “I am stronger than depression and I am braver than loneliness and nothing will ever exhaust me.” — Elizabeth Gilbert

2. “You will be lonely, but you’ll become strong.” ― Marie Rutkoski

3. “Truth is, I’m generally happiest when it’s just me. It’s okay to be madly in love with yourself.” — Richelle E. Goodrich

4. “Sometimes you have to stand alone. Just to make sure you still can.” — Monica Murphy

5. “The first great thing is to find yourself and for that, you need solitude and contemplation — at least sometimes.” — Fridtjof Nansen

6. “Loneliness is the fare that you pay to be free.” ― Dessa

7. “I’m learning a lot about myself being alone and doing what I’m doing.” — Chantal Kreviazuk

8. “By all means use sometimes to be alone. Salute thyself; see what thy soul doth wear.” — George Herbert

9. “A lonely day is God’s way of saying that he wants to spend some quality time with you.” — Criss Jami

10. “Learn to be alone and to like it. There is nothing more empowering or freeing than learning to like your own company.” — Mandy Hale

11. “Accept your own aloneness and stick to it, all your life. And then accept the times when the gap is filled in, when they come. But they’ve got to come. You can’t force them.” — D.H. Lawrence

12. “Stormy or sunny days, glorious or lonely nights, I maintain an attitude of gratitude.” — Maya Angelou

13. “Somewhere there’s someone for me. Though I may be lonely now, I’ll see it through somehow, to somebody’s heart I know I hold the key.” — Dean Martin

14. “If you’re lonely, touch someone. Chances are, you’d end up traveling together.” ― Jenim Dibie

15. “The best part about being alone is that you really don’t have to answer to anybody. You do what you want.” — Justin Timberlake

16. “I was not unhappy. I wanted to be with someone. But it didn’t trouble me that I was alone.” ― André Aciman

17. “Do not feel lonely on the road of righteousness because of the fewness of the walkers on it.” ― Ali ibn Abi Talib

18. “Lonely souls see beauty everywhere they go.” ― Anoir Ou-Chad

19. “There is always an eternal mystery around the lonely souls!” ― Mehmet Murat ildan

20. “It’s only natural to feel lonely after the enjoyable moments pass. But as you experience new joys those feelings of sorrow will start to fade.” ― Mizu Sahara

21. “You can never feel lonely in nature!” ― Avijeet Das

22. “I know what you might think; that being alone is a sign of loneliness. But the way I see it, sometimes being alone serves as a period of insight as to who you really are. Think about it.” ― Lauren Lola

23. “If you are lonely today, seek Christ and know the fellowship that He brings.” ― Billy Graham

24. “In solitude the mind gains strength and learns to lean upon itself.” — Laurence Sterne

25. “Ordinary men hate solitude. But the master makes use of it, embracing his aloneness, realizing he is one with the whole universe.” — Lao Tzu

26. “Most people never realize that loneliness is a gift from God. Not only can it draw us closer to Jesus, it can teach us to cherish a long-awaited marriage relationship all the more.” ― Eric Ludy

27. “I never feel lonely in the kitchen. Food is very friendly.” ― Julia Child

28. “As I get older I’m more and more comfortable being alone.” — Sienna Miller

29. “I love my loneliness as it helps me gather strength to deal with people.” ― Amit Abraham

30. “People say how do you live alone? My response — I have time for myself not for loneliness…” ― Ankit Pandey

31. “With Christ as your Savior and constant Companion, you, although alone, need never be lonely.” ― Billy Graham

32. “I will fill myself with the desert and the sky. I will be stone and stars, unchanging and strong and safe. The desert is complete; it is spare and alone, but perfect in its solitude. I will be the desert.” — Kiersten White

33. “Even if the world is cruel, even if all I have is loneliness, I’ll still live with everything I’ve got. Even if this emotion is all I have, I’ll keep struggling.” ― Makoto Shinkai

34. “Do not break your heart for those who left you, use the pain to earn success that defines you.” ― Iamsophie

35. “I am never lonely when I am reading the Bible. Nothing dissolves loneliness like a session with God’s Word.” ― Billy Graham

36. “One of the greatest things that can happen to you is loneliness.” ― Sunday Adelaja

37. “When your insides are like skinned knees and curdled milk, you gotta learn how to feel better all by your lonesome, without pills or games or anything like that, or else those bad feelings will just keep coming back.” ― Christian McKay Heidicker

38. “You are a wanderer. You have spent days and nights in loneliness. And somehow you have got addicted to your loneliness. And one day you meet someone and you feel as if you have known them all your life. It’s like you both are just continuing from where you had left a long time ago. And the silences between you, too have meaning!” ― Avijeet Das

39. “If one’s different one’s bound to be lonely.” — Aldous Huxley

40. “Turn your loneliness into singing and praying, and you shall realize that you are never alone at all.” ― Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

41. “I think loneliness is one of the greatest and realest things any of us can experience because there is no one else there to corrupt it or interfere with our perception… which makes it extremely intimate and yet universal simultaneously.” ― Emmy Kay

42. “Kill the loneliness by being with yourself, all alone.” ― Vikrmn

43. “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

44. “This loneliness of mine is like a balm for the wounds in my soul.” ― Avijeet Das

45. “Sometimes you need to be alone. Not to be lonely, but to enjoy your free time being yourself.” — Unknown

Lonely People Quotes

1. “All it takes is a beautiful fake smile to hide an injured soul, and no one will ever notice how lonely and broken I am.” — Unknown

2. “Let me tell you this: if you meet a loner no matter what they tell you it’s not because they enjoy solitude. It’s because they have tried to blend into the world before and people continue to disappoint them.” — Jodi Picoult

3. “Lonely people, in talking to each other can make each other lonelier.” — Lillian Hellman

4. “People talked about loneliness as if it were something alive and it could get you. But loneliness is something dead, it’s deadness. Lonely people are slowly dying people.” ― Sofia Samatar

5. “Lonely men seek companionship. Lonely women sit at home and wait. They never meet.” ― Abraham Lincoln

6. “Lonely people tend, rather, to be lonely because they decline to bear the psychic costs of being around other humans. They are allergic to people. People affect them too strongly.” — David Foster Wallace

7. “Loneliness isn’t about being by yourself. That’s fine, right, and good, desirable in many ways. Loneliness is about finding a landing place, or not, and knowing that, whatever you do, you can go back there. The opposite of loneliness isn’t company, it is return. A place to return.” — Jeanette Winterson

8. “Keep in mind that to avoid loneliness, many people need both a social circle and an intimate attachment. Having just one of two may still leave you feeling lonely.” — Gretchen Rubin

9. “Loneliness is my least favorite thing about life. That thing that I’m most worried about is just being alone without anybody to care for or someone who will care for me.” — Anne Hathaway

10. “Companionship is a foreign concept to some people. They fear it as much as the majority of people fear loneliness.” — Criss Jami

11. “Half of the time I don’t know what they’re talking about; their jokes seem to relate to a past that everyone but me has shared. I’m a foreigner in the world and I don’t understand the language.” ― Jean Webster

12. “People think I’m odd, so I know how it feels to be different, and I know how lonely that can be.” — Beauty and the Beast

13. “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

14. “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

15. “What makes us lonely are the feelings that we never share with anyone.” ― Bunny Naidu

16. “Forgiving, that’s what she is, and lonely. A person can forgive a lot if they need the company.” ― Ali Land

17. “My loneliness was born when men praised my talkative faults and blamed my silent virtues.” ― Khalil Gibran

18. “I can’t sleep alone anymore and I get used to company too quickly. You’re always gone too soon.” ― Charlotte Eriksson

19. “I can have patience for anything, but it’s waiting for love, that kills me a little each day.” ― Anthony Liccione

20. “My heart, sometimes singing in the afternoon, the most haunting song of solitude.” ― John J. Geddes

21. “Everyone’s searching for someone to end the pain of loneliness. Even the darkest of souls wants a shot at redemption.” ― Katherine McIntyre

22. “No one is materialistic by birth. It’s the loneliness of that person which makes him love things that can never love him back.” ― Srinivas Shenoy

23. “Solitude that throws the honest rays of perfect euphoria; Solitude that makes me breathe in the real me; Solitude I call it — my abode, my self-made haven; Solitude I call it — the sanguine face of Loneliness.” ― Debatrayee Banerjee

24. “I believe that individuals nowadays are probably more aware of their inner loneliness than has ever been true before in history.” ― Carl R. Rogers

25. “Each time I reach outside my skin/I just get lonesome for what’s within.” ― Fred Chappell

26. “You are alone, so alone, you speak back to silence. People call it loneliness, you call it solitude, different words, meaning the same pain.” ― Jenim Dibie

27. “It’s funny to think that Christmas — a time known for its joyful togetherness — can be the loneliest time of the year for some.” ― Giovanna Fletcher

28. “We are all the same in the middle of the night, fighting against the great tide of loneliness that threatens to drown us. All longing for someone to hear, to truly know us as we are.” ― Carrie Arcos

29. “One of my biggest weaknesses, one that has always shamed me, is that I have always been lonely. I’ve struggled to make friends because I can be socially awkward, because I’m weird, because I live in my head.” ― Roxane Gay

30. “‘Life is for the loved, not the lonely.’ She lamented. ‘Although it’s the lonely who try to make the world and its inhabitants less so.’” ― Donna Lynn Hope

31. “There are thousands of lonely people who carry heavy and difficult burdens of grief, anxiety, pain, and disappointment; but the loneliest of all is one whose life is steeped in sin.” ― Billy Graham

32. “The kind of society we live in can contribute to loneliness. Mobility and constant change tend to make some individuals feel rootless and disconnected.” ― Billy Graham

33. “I have often said that loneliness is the predominant attitude in our culture. A person can be lonely in the midst of a party; he can be lonely in a crowd. Loneliness may be experienced by the rich and famous or the poor and unknown.” ― Billy Graham

34. “You could climb to the top of the world and jump into the deepest of ravines, but if you don’t have someone to share it with you’ll always be looking back.” ― Saim Cheeda

35. “What’s the point of wandering? To find a better place? A home? But the loneliness will always capture me in its claws of no tomorrow.” ― Asper Blurry

36. “I may be too young to be lonely, but I am too lonely to be young.” ― Caroline Yawn

37. “Loneliness tortures many if not most of the elderly more intensely and more frequently than it torments many if not most of us who will never be or have not yet been pushed or pulled into old age.” ― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

38. “Loneliness is the endless disease that eats at our soul.” ― Jacob Baylis

39. “But he was absolutely alone. No one ever wrote to him. Visited him. Totally alone. And I believe the happiest man I have ever met.” ― John Fowles

40. “Loneliness is like a big, empty room inside you that echoes with the sounds of the life you’re not living.” ― Leisa Rayven

41. “You know something, you never know what lonely is until you are really alone, alone all day, alone all night, with no one to talk to.” ― Michael Morpurgo

42. “Loneliness is the biggest enemy of a human. Cause it is more than the enemy. When a person becomes lonely from inside, no one can save the person from sinking under the deep sea of end.” ― Salman Aziz

43. “It is not the desert island nor the stony wilderness that cuts you from the people you love. It is the wilderness in the mind, the desert wastes in the heart through which one wanders lost and a stranger.” ― Anne Morrow Lindbergh

44. “Sometimes, when I had to be alone, was when I was the loneliest. There are times people or events put others in a place where they have no one. Not a single friend or family member who is there for them. They want to reach out for help, they long for it, but there is no one there. Just an empty void, a constant reminder of how isolated you are.” ― Donna Grant

45. “I have plenty of people around me to talk to, and no one to be honest with.” ― Helen Oyeyemi

Wise Loneliness Quotes

1. “Loneliness is the human condition. Cultivate it. The way it tunnels into you allows your soul room to grow. Never expect to outgrow loneliness.” ― Janet Fitch

2. “A man can be himself only so long as he is alone; and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom; for it is only when he is alone that he is really free.” — Arthur Schopenhauer

3. “Loneliness is a sign you are in desperate need of yourself.” — Rupi Kaur

4. “The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain. It’s the loneliness of it. Memories need to be shared.” ― Lois Lowry

5. “Loneliness, especially long-term loneliness, give birth to geniuses or mad people.” ― Mustafa Donmez

6. “Loneliness is proof that your innate search for connection is intact.” — Martha Beck

7. “I’ve noticed that loneliness gets stronger when we try to face it down but gets weaker when we simply ignore it.” ― Paulo Coelho

8. “If you are alone, you belong entirely to yourself. If you are accompanied by even one companion, you belong only half to yourself or even less in proportion to the thoughtlessness of his conduct, and if you have more than one companion, you will fall more deeply into the same plight.” — Leonardo da Vinci

9. “Remember: the time you feel lonely is the time you most need to be by yourself. Life’s cruelest irony.” ― Douglas Coupland

10. “I don’t see how you can respect yourself if you must look in the hearts and minds of others for your happiness.” — Hunter S. Thompson

11. “All men’s misfortunes spring from their hatred of being alone.” — Jean de La Bruyère

12. “Loneliness is a great teacher and a master test of character.” ― Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

13. “It is far better to be alone than to be in bad company.” — George Washington

14. “You do not have to be alone. The world never inflicts loneliness upon us. That is something we choose or reject by ourselves.” ― Darren Shan

15. “Solitude is strength; to depend on the presence of the crowd is weakness. The man who needs a mob to nerve him is much more alone than he imagines.” — Paul Brunton

16. “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.” — Orson Welles

17. “If you are afraid of being lonely don’t try to be right.” — Jules Renard

18. “For fear you will be alone, you do so many things that aren’t you at all.” — Richard Brautigan

19. “Dreams have only one owner at a time. That’s why dreamers are lonely.” — Erma Bombeck

20. “Hanging with people who make you feel unappreciated, for the mere sake of appearing to be popular, is the loneliest place to be.”― Ellen J. Barrier

21. “You’ll end up living a lonely life if you’re waiting around for perfect.” ― Samantha Young

22. “The surest sign of age is loneliness.” — Annie Dillard

23. “We are all born alone and die alone. The loneliness is definitely part of the journey of life.” — Jenova Chen

24. “If you’re lonely when you’re alone you’re in bad company.” — Jean-Paul Sartre

25. “Loneliness expresses the pain of being alone and solitude expresses the glory of being alone.” — Paul Tillich

26. “All man’s miseries derive from not being able to sit quietly in a room alone.” ― Blaise Pascal

27. “When a man is one of a kind, he will be lonely wherever he is.” ― Louis L’Amour

28. “We live in such a lonely world because most days we wake up and decide to marry no one but ourselves.” — Christopher Poindexter

29. “Loneliness is the poverty of self; solitude is richness of self.” — May Sarton

30. “The eternal quest of the individual human being is to shatter his loneliness.” — Norman Cousins

31. “What loneliness is more lonely than distrust?” — George Eliot

32. “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

33. “Negative emotions like loneliness, envy, and guilt have an important role to play in a happy life; they’re big, flashing signs that something needs to change.” — Gretchen Rubin

34. “No one ever discovers the depths of his own loneliness.” — Georges Bernanos

35. “Warmth, kindness, and friendship are the most yearned-for commodities in the world. The person who can provide them will never be lonely.” ― Ann Landers

36. “Nothing makes us more vulnerable than loneliness, except greed.” — Thomas Harris

37. “Too much self-centered attitude, you see, brings, you see, isolation. Result: loneliness, fear, anger. The extreme self-centered attitude is the source of suffering.” — Dalai Lama

38. “Who knows what true loneliness is — not the conventional word but the naked terror? To the lonely themselves it wears a mask. The most miserable outcast hugs some memory or some illusion.” — Joseph Conrad

39. “Loneliness is different than isolation and solitude. Loneliness is a subjective feeling where the connections we need are greater than the connections we have.” — Vivek Murthy

40. “Everything we do is for the purpose of altering consciousness. We form friendships so that we can feel certain emotions, like love, and avoid others, like loneliness.” — Sam Harris

41. “Loneliness might be taking you towards an otherwise unreachable experience of reality.” — Olivia Laing

42. “The thing that makes you exceptional, if you are at all, is inevitably that which must also make you lonely.” — Lorraine Hansberry

43. “Being alone has nothing to do with how many people are around.” — Richard Yates

44. “We’re only as lonely as we think we are.” ― Bert McCoy

45. “Loneliness is a tax we have to pay to atone for a certain complexity of mind.” — Alain de Botton

Lonely Quotes To Help You Embrace Solitude

1. “We need solitude, because when we’re alone, we’re free from obligations, we don’t need to put on a show, and we can hear our own thoughts.” — Tamim Ansary

2. “I’m fascinated with myself and love hearing the sound of my own voice. I’d like to hear what I have to say. A lot of people don’t like being alone because they truly don’t like themselves but I love me.” — Gene Simmons

3. “I’m alone, but I’m not lonely. I like who I am. I like who I’m becoming.” ― Deena Kastor

4. “When I get lonely these days, I think: So be lonely, Liz. Learn your way around loneliness. Make a map of it. Sit with it, for once in your life.” ― Elizabeth Gilbert

5. “I think it’s good for a person to spend time alone. It gives them an opportunity to discover who they are and to figure out why they are always alone.” — Amy Sedaris

6. “Sometimes, you just need a break. In a beautiful place. Alone. To figure everything out.” — Unknown

7. “I am lonely, sometimes, but I dare say it’s good for me…” ― Louisa May Alcott

8. “Your life will get better when you realize it’s better to be alone than to chase people who don’t really care about you.” — Thema Davis

9. “I’m not much but I’m all I have.” — Philip K. Dick

10. “Knowing how to be solitary is central to the art of loving. When we can be alone, we can be with others without using them as a means of escape.” — Bell Hooks

11. “Always remember that you were once alone, and the crowd you see in your life today are just as unnecessary as when you were alone.”― Michael Bassey Johnson

12. “Sometimes I think that my own company is more suitable for me than if I were around others. Because of the person that I am.” — Kyle Labe

13. “You’re only lonely if you’re not there for you.” — Phil McGraw

14. “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

15. “I have found no other cure for loneliness than to befriend it.” ― Charlotte Eriksson

16. “Life is feeling lonely in a sea of people, but life is also joy of solitude.” ― Shon Mehta

17. “Ignore the loneliness, enjoy your presence.” ― M.F. Moonzajer

18. “A woman who is willing to be herself and pursue her own potential runs not so much the risk of loneliness as the challenge of exposure to more interesting men and people in general.” ― Lorraine Hansberry

19. “You must always see your loneliness as an opportunity to meet something good unexpected, something new unknown before, something interesting not happened yet!” ― Mehmet Murat ildan

20. “A little loneliness goes a long way in creating a richer, deeper, more vibrant, and colorful you.” — Mandy Hale

21. “Maybe I’d lost something. Maybe I’d lost a lot — more, even, than I could suffer — but I still had my own self. And lonesome as I might be, wasn’t no force on Earth or from above what could make me less.” ― J.D. Jordan

22. “Some people are lonely for all the right reasons.” ― Meg Rosoff

23. “My loneliness is a choice, not a situation.” ― Kavipriya Moorthy

24. “A lonely soul is the best friend of itself.” ― Munia Khan

25. “I’m perfectly alone right now, my mind is on overdrive, the gears are grinding in whirring dissonance — and it’s just how I like it.” ― Trevor J. Freeman

26. “There’s nothing abnormal about loneliness.” — Paula Stokes

27. “I was finished with assuming the best intentions of those who abandoned me, done trying to assuage my loneliness in barren places.” ― Saleem Haddad

28. “She’s one in a million. And that’s why she’s lonely.” ― Joyce Rachelle

29. “Modern life seems set up so that we can avoid loneliness at all costs, but maybe it’s worthwhile to face it occasionally. The further we push aloneness away, the less we are able to cope with it, and the more terrifying it gets. Some philosophers believe that loneliness is the only true feeling there is.” ― Michael Finkel

30. “Loneliness teaches and shows you the real and unreal and such things that one can never understand and even imagine living with others.” ― Ehsan Sehgal

31. “Loneliness makes us more capable of true intimacy if ever better opportunities do come along. We might be isolated for now, but we’ll be capable of far closer, more interesting bonds with anyone we do eventually locate. ” ― Alain de Botton

32. “Something happens when you are alone most of the time, when there are no distractions. Your mind grows more powerful — muscular, even. It takes over and starts to carry you.” ― Amanda Lindhout

33. “Great growth comes from loneliness. You have time to develop, dwell in your own mind, and go a bit mad. All great people are a bit mad. That’s good to remember. Don’t escape it. ” ― Charlotte Eriksson

34. “Solitude, the joy of being alone, stems from, as well as promotes, a state of maturity and inner richness.” ― Neel Burton

35. “No better school invented yet than the school of loneliness in the matters of understanding our deep-self!” ― Mehmet Murat ildan

36. “I could go if I wanted, share the floorboards with someone in a place less haunted, but I like it here and I’m happy to stay in this mess on my own, in this home I have built for myself in my bones.” ― Savannah Brown

37. “A lonely heart always endures deep cuts and scratches.” ― Qamar Rafiq

38. “Books have given me a magic portal to connect with people of the past and the present. I know I shall never feel lonely or powerless again.” ― Lisa Bu

39. “Loneliness can either kill you or teach you depending on you being either a fighter or a survivor.” ― Vignesh S

40. “I felt lonely and in full possession of my loneliness. It was the first time I had owned anything of value.” ― Ben Greenman

41. “If someone had asked him, “Ben, are you lonely”, he would have looked at that someone with real surprise. The question had never even occurred to him. He had no friends, but he had his books and his dreams…” ― Stephen King

42. “Your loneliness can end at any moment because the world is full of lonely souls!” ― Mehmet Murat ildan

43. “No sea of solitude is so deep that it can drown us.” ― Balroop Singh

44. “Sometimes one needs to stay alone, a little bit of time in loneliness gives you the opportunity to knock on the door to your brain, and it opens to a sudden bright idea. But those who never stay alone don’t even know what’s inside their brains.” ― Ego Marvis

45. “Do not look for company at all costs, and especially do not allow loneliness to lead you to fickle love or false friendship.” ― Eraldo Banovac

Relationship Lonely Quotes

1. “I used to think the worst thing in life was to end up all alone. It’s not. The worst thing in life is to end up with people that make you feel all alone.” — Robin Williams

2. “The loneliness you feel with another person, the wrong person, is the loneliest of all.” ― Deb Caletti

3. “It’s far better to be unhappy alone than unhappy with someone — so far.” — Marilyn Monroe

4. “Loneliness is never more cruel than when it is felt in close propinquity with someone who has ceased to communicate.” — Germaine Greer

5. “I learned that day that there is no more lonely state than being in a lonely marriage.” ― Julie Metz

6. “Being alone is scary, but not as scary as feeling alone in a relationship.” ― Amelia Earhart

7. “I’m tired of pretending, I am tired of crying, I am tired of feeling alone, I am tired of feeling worthless. It is time to say no and move on with my life.” — Unknown

8. “Being single for a long time is not the worst thing that can happen to you. Worse is when you’re stuck in a relationship where you don’t feel like a priority.” — Lauren Levine

9. “There are worse things than feeling alone. Things like being with someone and still feeling alone.” — M.W. Poetry

10. “People think being alone makes you lonely, but I don’t think that’s true. Being surrounded by the wrong people is the loneliest thing in the world.” ― Kim Culbertson

11. “Until you get comfortable with being alone, you’ll never know if you’re choosing someone out of love or loneliness.” — Mandy Hale

12. “I believe that it is sometimes less difficult to wake up and feel that I am alone when I really am than to wake up with someone else and be lonely.” ― Liv Ullmann

13. “We don’t have to be alone to feel lonely.” ― Charles F. Glassman

14. “A broken relationship can make you feel more lonely than when you were single.” — Unknown

15. “Loneliness hurts the most when you are in a relationship, and yet you don’t feel cared for, heard, understood, loved, and accepted.” — Vassia Sarantopoulou

16. “I hate begging for attention, especially from the one whom I’m supposed to matter the most.” — Unknown

17. “The worst part of a broken relationship is not feeling the pain of the breakup. It is loneliness.” — Unknown

18. “A lonely wife is a husband’s failure. She gave her life to you, and you are wasting that life away.” — Unknown

19. “At the end of the day, I know that I would rather be alone and occasionally lonely and unhappy than in a miserable marriage and lonely and unhappy all the time. I don’t mind being single. In fact, I like it.” — Alana Stewart

20. “If you feel lonely within your relationships, pay attention to this inner warning signal!” ― Doreen Virtue

21. “You feel lonely because you are being surrounded by the wrong people, fake friends, fake family, and lovers who don’t actually love you.” — Unknown

22. “We are not defined by our individual loneliness, but by the web of relationships in which we’re enmeshed.” ― Ken Liu

23. “Nothing is more painful than the loneliness of being with someone who is never completely there.” ― Rick Yancey

24. “Loneliness doesn’t come from having no people around you, but from being unable to communicate the things that seem important to you.” — Carl Jung

25. “There’s one rule to every relationship. And it’s “Never make the person you love feel lonely, especially when you are right there.” — Unknown

26. “People bear loneliness every day. They think they won’t be able to, that they won’t survive, but somehow one second slips into another, becomes an hour, a day, a week, and they are still living. They are still alone, even in the middle of a crowd of people. Even with a partner, a child.” ― Laura Barnett

27. “Don’t confuse love with the fear of being lonely…” ― Erik Tanghe

28. “I think one of the reasons why people tend to fake an entire relationship is maybe they are just afraid of being alone or are lonely right now!” ― Saif Ullah

29. “Being single isn’t the cause of loneliness, and marriage is not necessarily the cure. There are many lonely married people as well.” — Unknown

30. “It is in the company of others that one can be really lonely, for then one’s personality is forced openly to try to express what its separate individuality is.” ― Nanamoli Thera

31. “If we don’t acknowledge the truth in our relationships, they simply become a state of isolation with somebody (some body) still around.” ― Dragos Bratasanu

32. “I almost thought that marriage was a cure to loneliness, alas! So many are lonely inside marriage.” ― Gift Gugu Mona

33. “When friendship and trust are absent from a relationship, love just gets lonely.” — Unknown

34. “Why did people get married seeking a way out of loneliness? There was nothing more lonelier than two married people in a room together.” ― Jean Thompson

35. “I overcame my fear of loneliness when you showed me how lonely I can be when you’re around.” ― Khadidja Megaache

Loneliness Quotes To Remind You That You’re Never Alone

1. “Connecting with others is rewarding; it makes us feel like we’re not alone in the world.” — Jonah Berger

2. “The only time we waste is the time we spend thinking we are alone.” ― Mitch Albom

3. “Do not feel lonely; the entire universe is inside you.” — Jalaluddin Rumi

4. “When you read a book and its words agree with what you think, your view of the world, or your feelings at the time, you discover that there are people out there that think like you. That takes away a feeling of loneliness.” ― Innocent Mwatsikesimbe

5. “You’re not alone. You’re not the only one going through what you’re going through, and life does get better if you want it to.” ― Ellie Elisabeth

6. “When we suffer in silence, we think that we are alone, different, separate. When we share our stories of suffering, we find that we are the same.” ― Vironika Tugaleva

7. “It was books that made me feel that perhaps I wasn’t completely alone.” ― Cassandra Clare

8. “You are never alone. You are eternally connected with everyone.” — Amit Ray

9. “No one is ever alone and silence does not equate defeat.” ― Joan Ambu

10. “Don’t feel alone, because there is always someone out there who loves you more than you can imagine.” ― Anurag Prakash Ray

11. “Even in the loneliest moments I have been there for myself.” — Sanober Khan

12. “Many people need desperately to receive this message: I feel and think much as you do, care about many of the things you care about, although most people do not care about them. You are not alone.” — Kurt Vonnegut

13. “You never walk alone. Even the devil is the lord of flies.”― Gilles Deleuze

14. “Even in an empty room, we are never alone.” ― Wayne Gerard Trotman

15. “There is nothing so moving — not even acts of love or hate — as the discovery that one is not alone.” — Robert Ardrey

16. “Solitude is where one discovers one is not alone.”― Marty Rubin

17. “We’re all in this together. It’s okay, to be honest. It’s okay to ask for help. It’s okay to say you’re stuck, or that you’re haunted, or that you can’t begin to let go. We can all relate to those things. Screw the stigma that says otherwise. Break the silence and break the cycle, for you are more than just your pain. You are not alone. And people need other people.” — Jamie Tworkowski

18. “You are not alone. You are seen. I am with you. You are not alone.” — Shonda Rhimes

19. “No one is ever alone and silence does not equate defeat.” — Joan Ambu

20. “Don’t ever lose hope. Even when life seems bleak and hopeless, know that you are not alone.” — Nancy Reagan

21. “The moon is a friend for the lonesome to talk to.” — Carl Sandburg

22. “Just remember, you are not alone, in fact, you are in a very commonplace with millions of others. We need to help each other and keep striving to reach our goals.” — Mike Moreno

23. “Just be true to yourself. Listen to your heart. The rest will follow. Everyone has problems. You aren’t alone.” — Samantha Tonge

24. “Every single human being who is alive has felt this kind of pain, hopelessness, and loneliness at one time or another. We are all connected through this shared pain and struggle.” — Leo Babauta

25. “The irony of loneliness is we all feel it at the same time — together.” — Rupi Kaur

Bonus Loneliness Quotes To Ponder

1. “Mastery generally requires the ability to not only tolerate but also enjoy your own company.” ― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

2. “Times may have changed, but there are some things that are always with us — loneliness is one of them.” — Laurie Graham

3. “Being alone & actually sitting with our own thoughts can lead to such growth and realizations that are rare in our everyday busy lives.” — Kourtney Kardashian

4. “I’ve never been lonely. I’ve been in a room, and I’ve felt suicidal. I’ve been depressed. I’ve felt awful — awful beyond all, but I never felt that one other person could enter that room and cure what was bothering me or that any number of people could enter that room.” — Charles Bukowski

5. “Loneliness — since I was trying to escape it — was hell; and yet for the hermit who seeks it, it is apparently happiness.” ― Kōbō Abe

6. “This year taught me that my loneliness has more to do with myself than anyone else. The loneliest I will ever be is when I do not have the strength to love myself.” ― Marianna Paige

7. “At some point in life every person encounters haunting feelings of loneliness, because the feeling of being alone and withdrawing deeply into the inner self is part of the human condition. A person might choose to countenance or even cultivate their loneliness and turn the poignant hours of unerring solitude into poetry of their soul.” ― Kilroy J. Oldster

8. “If you smile when you are alone then you really mean it.” — Andy Rooney

9. “Never allow loneliness to drive you back into the arms of someone you know you don’t belong with…” ― Nitya Prakash

10. “I desperately want someone to see the anguish of my soul, for to walk alone in that kind of anguish creates an anguish all its own.” ― Craig D. Lounsbrough

11. “I’m left with a loneliness so overpowering it threatens to seep from my eyes. I have no one. Unfortunately, that’s not fantasy. That’s all-natural, 100 percent organic, unprocessed, reality.” ― Val Emmich

12. “No one could love a lonely girl, not unless she had the right kind of lonely.” ― Nessie Q.

13. “There’s a certain term – existential loneliness- which describes the loneliness that you can feel no matter how many people you are with, no matter how close you are to them or how much they love you; when you understand that you are completely alone in this world.” ― Tatiana Vedenska

14. “As a matter of fact, it seems to me that everyone is lonely, no matter how much they live together, it seems like everyone lonely in this world.” ― Mustafa Donmez

15. “Loneliness is your inability to see what it is, and this running away from yourself creates fear. Loneliness is nothing but fear of self.” ― Pragya Tiwari

16. “Genius is lonely without the surrounding presence of a people to inspire it.” ― Thomas Wentworth Higginson

17. “So many of us are struggling, suffering in the loneliness. We are all fighting something, we are all suffering in our own silent way.” ― Mimi Novic

18. “With the experience gained in loneliness; you can open many doors; with the experience gained in the crowds, you can open many doors and finally with the experience you have gained in both the loneliness and the crowd, you can open every door!” ― Mehmet Murat ildan

19. “If anyone understood loneliness, the moon would.” ― Delia Owens

20. “The only ones awake at three in the morning are either those who are lonely or those who are in love.” ― Faraaz Kazi

Bottom Line

I gave my best to collect the most profound loneliness quotes from all over the internet, covering the essence of navigating the waters of solitude.

I hope they offered you the wisdom that speaks to your heart!