Being alone isn’t always lonely. In fact, it can be quite beautiful and rewarding.
Here is a list of our favorite quotes celebrating the gifts of solitude.
“I have never found a companion that was so companionable as solitude. - Henry David Thoreau
“A little while alone in your room will prove more valuable than anything else that could ever be given you. - Rumi
“Be alone, that is the secret of invention; be alone, that is when ideas are born.-Nikola Tesla
“Go out for a walk. It doesn’t have to be a romantic walk in the park… It doesn’t have to be a walk during which you’ll have multiple life epiphanies and discover meanings no other brain ever managed to encounter. Do not be afraid of spending quality time by yourself… That doesn’t make you antisocial or cause you to reject the rest of the world. But you need to breathe. And you need to be. -Albert Camus
“The happiest of all lives is a busy solitude. - Voltaire
“Solitude is the house of peace. - T.F. Hodge
“In solitude, we give passionate attention to our lives, to our memories, to the details around us. - Virginia Woolf
“People are always so boring when they band together. You have to be alone to develop all the idiosyncrasies that make a person interesting.- Andy Warhol
“Solitude is essentially the discovery and acceptance of our uniqueness. - Lawrence Freeman
“It is in solitude that the works of hand, heart and mind are always conceived, and in solitude that individuality must be affirmed. - Robert Lindner
“You can’t hear your thoughts, your voice, without solitude. - Leo Babauta
“Solitude is fine but you need someone to tell you that solitude is fine. - Honoré de Balzac
“My alone feels so good, I’ll only have you if you’re sweeter than my solitude. - Warsan Shire
“Alone, I am drunk on my thoughts; in company, I am sober again. - Mason Cooley
“Whosoever is delighted in solitude, is either a wild beast or a god. - Aristotle
“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
“It is not necessary that you leave the house. Remain at your table and listen. Do not even listen, only wait. Do not even wait, be wholly still and alone. The world will present itself to you for its unmasking… in ecstasy it will writhe at your feet. - Franz Kafka
“Your solitude will be a support and a home for you, even in the midst of very unfamiliar circumstances, and from it you will find all your paths. - Rainer Maria Rilke
“I live in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity. - Albert Einstein
“Solitude is where one discovers one is not alone. - Marty Rubin
“Solitude is the place of purification. - Martin Buber
“If we are incapable of finding peace in ourselves, it is pointless to search elsewhere. - Francois de la Rochefoucauld
“I only go out to get me a fresh appetite for being alone. - Lord Byron
“I am never less alone than when alone. - Cicero
“Reading well is one of the great pleasures that solitude can afford you. - Harold Bloom
“The best thinking has been done in solitude. - Thomas A. Edison
“There are places and moments in which one is so completely alone that one sees the world entire. - Jules Renard
“It is very easy to love alone. - Gertrude Stein
“Wise people are never less alone than when they are alone. - Jonathan Swift
“Solitude matters, and for some people, it’s the air they breathe. - Susan Cain
“Solitude, if rightly used, becomes not only a privilege but a necessity. - Alice H. Rice
“For now she need not think of anybody. She could be herself, by herself. And that was what now she often felt the need of – to think; well not even to think. To be silent; to be alone. - Virginia Woolf
“Violent passions are formed in solitude. In the busy world no object has time to make a deep impression. - Henry Home
“Without great solitude no serious work is possible. - Pablo Picasso
“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
“The things one experiences alone with oneself are very much stronger and purer. - Eugene Delacroix
“It is only alone, truly alone, that one bursts apart, springs forth. - Maria Isabel Barreno
“How much better is silence; the coffee cup, the table. How much better to sit by myself like the solitary sea-bird that opens its wings on the stake. Let me sit here for ever with bare things, this coffee cup, this knife, this fork, things in themselves, myself being myself. - Virginia Woolf
“I restore myself when I’m alone. - Marilyn Monroe
“In order to understand the world, one has to turn away from it on occasion. - Albert Camus
“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
“No man should go through life without once experiencing healthy, even bored solitude in the wilderness, finding himself depending solely on himself and thereby learning his true and hidden strength. - Jack Kerouac
“Alone time is when I distance myself from the voices of the world so I can hear my own. - Oprah
“Solitude is creativity’s best friend, and solitude is refreshment for our souls. - Naomi Judd
“One is inspired only in solitude. - Gary Mark Gilmore
“I need to be alone. I need to ponder my shame and my despair in seclusion; I need the sunshine and the paving stones of the streets without companions, without conversation, face to face with myself, with only the music of my heart for company. - Henry Miller
“I think that I cannot preserve my health and spirits, unless I spend four hours a day at least – and it is commonly more than that – sauntering through the woods and over the hills and fields, absolutely free from all worldly engagements. - Henry David Thoreau
“It is in deep solitude that I find the gentleness with which I can truly love my brothers. The more solitary I am the more affection I have for them… Solitude and silence teach me to love my brothers for what they are, not for what they say. - Thomas Merton
“It is only when we silent the blaring sounds of our daily existence that we can finally hear the whispers of truth that life reveals to us, as it stands knocking on the doorsteps of our hearts. - K.T. Jong
“Inside myself is a place where I live all alone, and that’s where I renew my springs that never dry up. - Pearl S. Buck
“What a lovely surprise to finally discover how un-lonely being alone can be. - Ellen Burstyn
“When the superficial wearies me, it wearies me so much that I need an abyss in order to rest. - Antonio Porchia
“The thoughtful soul to solitude retires. - Omar Khayyam
“I want to be with those who know secret things or else alone. - Rainer Maria Rilke
“Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul. - Marcus Aurelius
“Everything that matters in our intellectual and moral life begins with an individual confronting his own mind and conscience in a room by himself. - Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
“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
“There are days when solitude is a heady wine that intoxicates you with freedom, others when it is a bitter tonic, and still others when it is a poison that makes you beat your head against the wall. - Colette
“It is far better to be alone than to wish you were. - Ann Landers
“I want to be able to be alone, to find it nourishing – not just a waiting. - Susan Sontag
“When I’m by myself, I can be myself, which is what I want to be. - Jean Culligan
“Cherish your solitude. Take trains by yourself to places you have never been. Sleep out alone under the stars. Learn how to drive a stick shift. Go so far away that you stop being afraid of not coming back. Say no when you don’t want to do something. Say yes if your instincts are strong, even if everyone around you disagrees. Decide whether you want to be liked or admired. Decide if fitting in is more important than finding out what you’re doing here. Believe in kissing. - Eve Ensler
“Sometimes, you just need a break. In a beautiful place. Alone. To figure everything out. - Unknown
“Solitude is the salt of personhood. It brings out the authentic flavor of every experience. - May Sarton
“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
“The more powerful and original a mind, the more it will incline towards the religion of solitude. - Aldous Huxley
“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 Johannes Tillich
“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
“Aloneness is the presence of oneself. Aloneness is very positive… You are so full of presence that you can fill the whole universe with your presence and there is no need for anybody. - Osho
“Being solitary is being alone well: being alone luxuriously immersed in doings of your own choice, aware of the fullness of your won presence rather than of the absence of others. Because solitude is an achievement. - Alice Koller
“I love people. I love my family, my children… but inside myself is a place where I live all alone and that’s where you renew your springs that never dry up. - Pearl S. Buck
“But I’ll tell you what hermits realize. If you go off into a far, far forest and get very quiet, you’ll come to understand that you’re connected with everything. - Alan Watts
“Solitude gives birth to the original in us, to beauty unfamiliar and perilous – to poetry. But also, it gives birth to the opposite: to the perverse, the illicit, the absurd. - Thomas Mann
“Letter writing is the only device for combining solitude with good company. - Lord Byron
“I have a great deal of company in the house, especially in the morning when nobody calls. - Henry David Thoreau
“I prefer to be left alone with my books. - Alison Weir
“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
“The most profound relationship we will ever have is the one with ourselves. - Shirley MacLaine
“The person who travels alone can start today; but the person who travels with another must wait until the other is ready. - Henry David Thoreau
“Solitude is the soul’s holiday, an opportunity to stop doing for others and to surprise and delight ourselves instead. - Katrina Kenison
“Then stirs the feeling infinite, so felt in solitude, where we are least alone. - Lord Byron
“Don’t be scared to walk alone. Don’t be scared to like it. - John Mayer
“I have to be alone very often. I’d be quite happy if I spent from Saturday night until Monday morning alone in my apartment. That’s how I refuel. - Audrey Hepburn
