Quotes About Being Alone—but Not Lonely

Some people find it unnerving to be left alone when there are far too many uncomfortable dimensions to the solitude. Yet being alone does not necessarily mean being lonely. For instance, assume you are left alone with your thoughts. If you find peace in solitude, your time alone may be a blessing, a welcome respite from the cares of the world. The right quotes show that being alone—far from being lonely—provides a chance to reflect on life.

Quotes About Being Alone

Buddha

"All things appear and disappear because of the concurrence of causes and conditions. Nothing ever exists entirely alone; everything is in relation to everything else."

Henry David Thoreau

"I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude."

Ann Landers

"It is far better to be alone than to wish you were."

Warsan Shire

"My alone feels so good, I’ll only have you if you’re sweeter than my solitude."

Marilyn Monroe

"I restore myself when I'm alone."

"It's better to be unhappy alone than unhappy with someone—so far."

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"The soul that sees beauty may sometimes walk alone."

Julie Delpy

"Too many women throw themselves into romance because they’re afraid of being single, then start making compromises and losing their identity. I won’t do that."

Thomas Merton

"If we seek paradise outside ourselves, we cannot have paradise in our hearts."
Wayne Dyer

"You cannot be lonely if you like the person you're alone with."

John Steinbeck

"All great and precious things are lonely.

Blaise Pascal

"All men's miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone."

James Dean

"Being an actor is the loneliest thing in the world. You are all alone with your concentration and imagination, and that's all you have."

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

"Every man must do two things alone; he must do his own believing and his own dying."

George Washington

"It is better to be alone than in bad company."

Dr. Seuss

"All alone! Whether you like it or not, alone is something you'll be quite a lot."

Dalai Lama

"Spend some time alone every day."

African Proverb

"It is better to travel alone than with a bad companion."

Jules Renard

"If you are afraid of being lonely, don't try to be right."

Suzanne Gordon

"To be alone is to be different, to be different is to be alone."

Charles Caleb Colton

"To dare to live alone is the rarest courage; since there are many who had rather meet their bitterest enemy in the field, than their own hearts in their closet."

Alain de Botton

"Booksellers are the most valuable destination for the lonely, given the numbers of books that were written because authors couldn't find anyone to talk to."

Georg Trakl

"For whoever is lonely there is a tavern."

Paul Tillich

"Language...has created the word loneliness to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word solitude to express the glory of being alone."

Jose Garcia Villa

"No more truth. Bells ring no more in me. I am all alone singly. Lonely rests my head. O my God! I am dead."

Pearl S. Buck

"The person who tries to live alone will not succeed as a human being. His heart withers if it does not answer another heart. His mind shrinks away if he hears only the echoes of his own thoughts and finds no other inspiration."

Vicki Baum

"Fame always brings loneliness. Success is as ice-cold and lonely as the North Pole."

Anonymous

"I think I'd do better on my own, no friends, no fights, just me alone."

Christopher Morley

"Beauty is ever to the lonely mind a shadow fleeting; she is never plain. She is a visitor who leaves behind the gift of grief, the souvenir of pain."

Hafiz of Persia

“I wish I could show you when you are lonely or in darkness the astonishing light of your own being.”

Ancient Chinese Proverb

“An invisible thread connects those who are destined to meet, regardless or time, place, and circumstance. The thread may stretch or tangle. But it will never break.”

Mandy Hale

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

Dr. Wayne Dyer

"You cannot be lonely if you like the person you're alone with."

Joseph F. Newton

“People are lonely because they build walls instead of bridges.”