Inspirational solitude quotes will encourage you to think a little deeper than you usually would and broaden your perspective.
Most Famous Solitude Quotes
Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong. – Winston Churchill
A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin; what else does a man need to be happy? – Albert Einstein
Solitude is the richness of self. – May Sarton
All man’s miseries derive from not being able to sit quietly in a room alone. – Blaise Pascal
Whosoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god. – Aristotle
Sometimes the solitary voice can be the best one. – Frank Miller
Without great solitude, no serious work is possible. – Pablo Picasso
The best thinking has been done in solitude. – Thomas A. Edison
Without great solitude no serious work is possible. – Pablo Picasso
In solitude the mind gains strength and learns to lean upon itself. – Laurence Sterne
It’s your road and yours alone. Others may walk it with you, but no one can walk it for you. – Rumi
One can be instructed in society, one is inspired only in solitude. – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
If you’re lonely when you’re alone, you’re in bad company. – Jean-Paul Sartre
I am never less alone than when alone. – Cicero
Solitude is the soul’s holiday. – Katrina Kenison
By all means use sometimes to be alone. Salute thyself; see what thy soul doth wear. – George Herbert
Solitude is painful when one is young, but delightful when one is more mature. – Albert Einstein
Solitude was my only consolation – deep, dark, deathlike solitude. – Mary Shelley
One can be instructed in society, one is inspired only in solitude. – Gary Mark Gilmore
Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul. – Marcus Aurelius
I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude. – Henry David Thoreau
Seclusion is the price of greatness. – Paramahansa Yogananda
Writing is utter solitude, the descent into the cold abyss of oneself. – Franz Kafka
What a lovely surprise to finally discover how unlonely being alone can be. – Ellen Burstyn
The happiest of all lives is a busy solitude. – Voltaire
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. – Anonymous
Letter writing is the only device for combining solitude with good company. – Lord Byron
Conversation enriches the understanding, but solitude is the school of genius. – Edward Gibbon
People who take the time to be alone usually have depth, originality, and quiet reserve. – John Miller
Loneliness is the poverty of self; solitude is the richness of self. – May Sarton
Great men are like eagles, and build their nest on some lofty solitude. – Arthur Schopenhauer
Be a loner. That gives you time to wonder, to search for the truth. Have holy curiosity. Make your life worth living. – Albert Einstein
Then stirs the feeling infinite, so felt in solitude, where we are least alone. – Lord Byron, ‘Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage’
Solitude is the great teacher, and to learn its lessons you must pay attention to it. – Deepak Chopra
The more powerful and original a mind, the more it will incline towards the religion of solitude. – Aldous Huxley
All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone. – Blaise Pascal
In solitude is healing. Speak to your soul. Listen to your heart. Sometimes in the absence of noise we find the answers. – Dodinsky
A man can be himself so long as he is alone. 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
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 LeShan
Talent is nurtured in solitude … A creation of importance can only be produced when its author isolates himself, it is a child of solitude. – Johann Wolfgang Von Göethe
Every kind of creative work demands solitude, and being alone, constructively alone, is a prerequisite for every phase of the creative process. – Barbara Powell
Our language has wisely sensed the two sides of being alone. It 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 Tillich
Talent develops in quiet places, character in the full current of human life. – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
You are born alone. You die alone. The value of the space in between is trust and love. – Louise Bourgeois
We live, in fact, in a world starved for solitude, silence, and private: and therefore starved for meditation and true friendship. – C.S. Lewis,
To have passed through life and never experienced solitude is to have never known oneself. To have never known oneself is to have never known anyone. – Joseph Krutch
A man can be himself alone so long as he is alone … 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,
In solitude I find my answers. – Kristen Butler
Conversation enriches the understanding, but solitude is the school of genius. Edward Gibbon
I myself am best when least in company. – William Shakespeare
No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path. – Buddha
A little while alone in your room will prove more valuable than anything else that could ever be given you. – Rumi
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
Our language has widely sensed the two sides of being alone. It 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 Tillich
I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time. To be in company, even with the best, is soon wearisome and dissipating. I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude. – Henry David Thoreau
In stillness lives wisdom. In quiet you’ll find peace. In solitude you’ll remember yourself. – Robin Sharma
Solitude sharpens awareness of small pleasures otherwise lost. – Kevin Patterson
Being solitary is being alone well: being alone luxuriously immersed in doings of your own choice, aware of the fullness of your own presence rather than of the absence of others. Becuase solitude is an achievement. – Alice Koller
I was a man who thrived on solitude; without it I was like another man without food or water. Each day without solitude weakened me. I took no pride in my solitude; but I was dependent on it. The darkness of the room was like sunlight to me. – Charles Bukowski
I lived in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in maturity. – Albert Einstein
A well-ordered mind is at home with solitude. – The Stoic Emperor
Not being comfortable alone means you must spend more time alone. – Maxime Lagacé
A happy life must be to a great extent a quiet life, for it is only in an atmosphere of quiet that true joy can live. – Bertrand Russell
… practically all creative people, and certainly most geniuses, have preferred to be alone for long periods, especially when producing their best work. – Raj Persaud
The mind is sharper and keener in seclusion and uninterrupted solitude. Originality thrives in seclusion free of outside influences beating upon us to cripple the creative mind. Be alone-that is the secret of invention: be alone, that is when ideas are born. – Nikola Tesla
You think that I am impoverishing myself withdrawing from men, but in my solitude I have woven for myself a silken web or chrysalis, and, nymph-like, shall ere long burst forth a more perfect creature, fitted for a higher society. – Henry David Thoreau
Those who fly solo have the strongest wings. – Anonymous
How can you hear your soul id everyone is talking? – Mary Doria Russell
Solitude is independence. I’m not anti-social. I’m pro-solitude. – Beth Buelow
It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
I feel the same way about solitude as some people feel about the blessing of the church. It’s the light of grace for me. I never close my door behind me without the awareness that I am carrying out an act of mercy toward myself. – Peter Høeg
Now, more than ever, we need our solitude. Being alone gives us the power to regulate and adjust our lives. It can teach us fortitude and the ability to satisfy our own needs. A restorer of energy, the stillness of alone experiences provides us with much-needed rest. It brings forth our longing to explore, our curiosity about the unknown, our will to be an individual, our hopes for freedom. Alone time is fuel for life. – Dr. Ester Buchholz
In proportion as a person simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude. – Henry David Thoreau
The mind is sharper and keener in seclusion and uninterrupted solitude. – Nikola Tesla
The great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet. – Franz Kakfa
There is only one solitude, and it is vast, heavy, difficult to bear, and almost everyone has hours when he would gladly exchange it for any kind of sociability, however trivial or cheap, for the tiniest outward agreement with the first person who comes along…. – Rainer Maria Rilke
People who need people are threatened by people who don’t. The idea of seeking contentment alone is heretical, for society steadfastly decrees that our completeness lies in others. – Lionel Fisher, ‘Celebrating Time Alone: Stories of Splendid Solitude’
Not everyone knows how to be alone with others, how to share solitude. We have to help each other to understand how to be in our solitude, so that we can relate to each other without grabbing on to each other. We can be interdependent but not dependent. Loneliness is rejected despondency. Solitude is shared interdependence. – David Spangler
Once you know how to take care of yourself, company becomes an option. – Keenu Reeves
In the temple of his spirit, each man is alone. – Ayn Rand
There is a difference between loneliness and solitude, one will empty you, and one will fill you. You have the power to choose. – Anonymous
The reason that extended solitude seemed so hard to endure was not that we missed others but that we began to wonder if we ourselves were present, because for so long our existence depended upon assurances from them. – Doris Grumbach, ‘Fifty Days of Solitude’
I go in solitude, so as not to drink out of everybody’s cistern. When I am among the many I live as the many do, and I do not think I really think; after a time it always seems as if they want to banish myself from myself and rob me of my soul. – Friedrich Nietzsche
Solitude is dangerous. It’s addicting. Once you see how peaceful it is, you don’t want to deal with people. – Anonymous
Solitude, whether endured or embraced, is a necessary gateway to original thought. – Jane Hirshfield
Solitude is where one discovers one is not alone. – Marty Rubin
Solitude is a lost art in these days of ultra-connectedness. – Leo Babauta
Solitude is the attribute of the strong. The weak is always found in the crowd. – Unknown
Solitude is not the absence of company, but the moment when our soul is free to speak to us and help us decide what to do with our life. – Paulo Coelho
Decisive moment: the one when you will be really alone. And it is perhaps this that makes her hesitate: not the void, but the vastness of the solitude. It’s as well if you are frightened of solitude. It’s a sign that you have come to the moment of your birth. – Hélène Cixous
Find a day for yourself-better yet, late at night. Go to the forest or to the field, or lock yourself in a room … You will meet solitude there. There you will be able to listen attentively to the noise of the wind first, to birds singing, to see wonderful nature and to notice yourself in it … and to come back to harmonic connection with the world and its Creator. – Rabbi Nahman
We must become so alone, so utterly alone, that we withdraw into our innermost self. It is a way of bitter suffering. But then our solitude is overcome, we are no longer alone, for we find that our innermost self is the spirit, that it is God, the indivisible. And suddenly we find ourselves in the midst of the world, yet undisturbed by its multiplicity, for our innermost soul we know ourselves to be one with all being. – Hermann Hesse
Solitude is like punctuation. A paragraph without periods and commas would be exhausting to read. – Arnie Kozak
Solitude isn’t loneliness. Solitude is when the entire serene universe seems to surround and hold you quietly. – Victoria Erickson
The best thinking has been done in solitude. The worst has been done in turmoil. – Thomas A. Edison
Solitude is creativity’s best friend, and solitude is refreshment for our souls. – Naomi Judd
I enjoy the freedom and solitude. In those moments I remember who I am and what I want in life. – Anonymous
I never found a companion that was so companionable as solitude. – Henry David Thoreau
Solitude is the place of purification. – Martin Buber
Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile. – Albert Einstein
Society is no comfort, to one not sociable. – William Shakespeare
Loneliness is to be avoided, solitude is to be sought. – Tom Hanks
It’s an interesting combination: Having a great fear of being alone, and having a desperate need for solitude and the solitary experience. That’s always been a tug of war for me. – Jodie Foster
There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you. – Maya Angelou
We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers. – Henry David Thoreau
A warrior balances solitude and dependence. – Paulo Coelho
The monotony and solitude of a quiet life stimulates the creative mind. – Albert Einstein
I think it’s very healthy to spend time alone. You need to know how to be alone and not be defined by another person. – Oscar Wilde
We live in a world starved for solitude and silence and therefore starved for meditation and true friendship. – C.S. Lewis
I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time. To be in company, even with the best, is soon wearisome and dissipating. I love to be alone. – Henry David Thoreau
I have a great deal of company in the house, especially in the morning when nobody calls. – Henry David Thoreau
We carry about us the burden of what thousands of people have said and the memories of all our misfortunes. To abandon all that is to be alone, and the mind that is alone is not only innocent but young – not in time or age, but young, innocent, alive at whatever age – and only such a mind can see that which is truth and that which is not measurable by words. – Jiddu Krishnamurti
It is sometimes said that each of us is ultimately alone. This idea is compelling not because of birth and death, but because so often our moments alone seem more true, more real. I need solitude like I need food and rest, and like eating and resting, solitude is most healing when it fits the rhythm of my needs. A rigidly scheduled aloneness does not nourish me. Solitude is perhaps a misnomer. To me, being alone means togetherness – the re-coming-togetherness of myself and nature, of myself and being, the reuniting of myself with all other selves. Solitude especially means putting the parts of my mind back together, unifying the pieces of my mind back together, unifying the pieces of myself scattered by anger and fear, until i can once again see that the little things are little and the big things are big. – Hugh Prather
I had told people of my intention to be alone for a time. At once I realized they looked upon this declaration as a rejection of them and their company. I felt apologetic, even ashamed, that I would have wanted such a curious thing as solitude, and then sorry that I had made a point of announcing my desire for it. … To the spouse, or the long-time companion, or the family, and to the social circle, as it is called, the decision to be alone for any length of time is dangerous, threatening, a sign of rejection. … Having never felt the need to be alone themselves, having always lived happily in relationships, they looked upon my need as eccentric, even somewhat mad. But more than that, they saw it as fraudulent, an excuse to be rid of them rather than a desperate need to explore myself. – Doris Grumbach
That is why I go into solitude so as not to drink out of everybody’s cistern. When I am among the many I live as the many do, and I do not think as I really think; after a time it always seems as though they want to banish me from myself and rob me of my soul and I grow angry with everybody and fear everybody. – Friedrich Nietzsche
My solitude doesn’t depend on the presence or absence of people; on the contrary, I hate who steals my solitude without, in exchange, offering me true company. – Friedrich Nietzsche
Writing, at its best, is a lonely life. – Ernest Hemingway
It’s easy to stand in the crowd but it takes courage to stand alone. – Mahatma Gandhi
My passionate interest in social justice and social responsibility has always stood in curious contrast to a marked lack of desire for direct association with men and women. – Albert Einstein
Solitude is dangerous. It’s very addictive. It becomes a habit after you realise how peaceful and calm it is. It’s like you don’t want to deal with people anymore because they drain your energy. – Jim Carrey
Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom. – Aristotle
Wherever you may seek solitude, men will ferret you out and compel you to belong to their desperate company of oddfellows. – Henry David Thoreau
It would do the world good if every person would compel himself to often be alone. Most of the world’s progress has come from such. – Deepak Chopra
Sometimes solitude is one of the most beautiful things on earth. – Charles Bukowski
In nature, in solitude, the soft voice of wisdom can be heard. – Anonymous
To make the right choices in life, you have to get in touch with your soul. To do this, you need to experience solitude, which most people are afraid of because in the silence you hear the truth and know the solutions. – Deepak Chopra
Never be afraid to spend time in your own company getting to know yourself better. That’s where true happiness is found. – Anonymous
Solitude is bliss. – Anonymous
An introvert’s desire for solitude is more than just a preference. It is crucial to our health and happiness. – Michaela Chung
I chide society, I embrace solitude, and yet I am not so ungrateful as not to see the wise, the lovely and the noble-minded, as from time to time they pass my gate. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the water to create many ripples. – Mother Teresa
This great misfortune – to be incapable of solitude. – Jean de la Bruyere
He who understands humanity seeks solitude. – Ali ibn Abi Talib
Solitude is a kind of freedom. – Umberto Eco
The more solitude, the more peace. – Maxime Lagacé
The more solitude, the simpler it is. – Maxime Lagacé
Fire is a good companion for the mind. – May Sarton
Be alone and be happy with yourself. – Leo Babauta
Solitude, in these days as much as ever, is an absolute necessity. – Leo Babauta
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
It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after your own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps the perfect sweetness and independence of solitude. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Solitude is un-American. – Erica Jong
Solitude terrifies the soul at twenty. – Moliere
Solitude appeared to me as the only fit state of man. – Walter Benjamin
I’m not anti-social. I’m pro-solitude. – Unknow
It is better to be alone than in bad company. – Unknown
Solitude sometimes is best society. – John Milton
Some of us are born to a solitary life. – Philippa Gregory
Solitude vivifies; isolation kills. – Joseph Roux
Religion is what an individual does with his solitariness. – Alfred North Whitehead
I owe my solitude to other people. – Alan Watts
To find yourself, think for yourself. – Socrates
The thoughtful soul to solitude retires. – Omar Khayyam
Never be afraid to sit awhile and think. – Lorraine Hansberry
You only grow when you are alone. – Paul Newman
