Though we longed not to be lonely, we also feared the pain it would take us to be brought out of our lonely states. And after that fear, could we be guaranteed that we would never be returned to a state of loneliness again? We could not.
-Edward Carey
"Observatory Mansions"
Quotations
Loneliness
Associate yourself with people of good quality, for it is better to be alone than to be in bad company.
-Booker T. Washington
Because, once alone, it is impossible to believe that one could ever have been otherwise. Loneliness is an absolute discovery.
-Marilynne Robinson
"Housekeeping"
Loneliness isn’t a lack of people. It is a lack of understanding and acceptance.
-Bronnie Ware
What is the difference in being alone with another and being alone by one's self?
-Henrik Ibsen
It would be too easy to say that I feel invisible. Instead, I feel painfully visible, and entirely ignored.
-David Levithan
"Every Day"
All great and precious things are lonely.
-John Steinbeck
"East of Eden"
Even the company of the mad was better than the company of the dead.
-Stephen King
"The Stand"
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.
-Paul Johannes Tillich
"The Eternal Now"
Loneliness is the poverty of self; solitude is richness of self.
-May Sarton
