54 Inspiring Quotes About Being Alone

Being alone can be difficult, but it can also be a time of reflection and growth. These inspirational quotes and sayings will help guide your journey.
Photograph Of Yellow Flower Growing Through Crack In Pavement, Overlaid With Article Title

“Alone doesn’t mean lonely. It just means alone. It just means that for now, you’re on your own, and that’s not a terrible thing.” Hemal Jhaveri

People have struggled with loneliness since they were put on this earth — feeling alone is part of the human condition.

Because loneliness is such a universal experience, you can bet there have been a lot of quotes written about it.

Being alone can be difficult, but it can also be a time of reflection and growth, so we’ve gathered some inspirational quotes and sayings to think about while you navigate this period of your life.

In this article, we’ll share:

Editor’s Note: This article is part of The Roots Of Loneliness Project, the first-of-its-kind resource that comprehensively explores the phenomenon of loneliness and over 100 types we might experience during our lives.

Being Alone Quotes

Reading other people’s thoughts about being alone can help you to conceptualize and deal with your own loneliness.

Honestly, it’s a comfort to know that many people throughout history have dealt with it, themselves and it proves the point that although we feel alone, we are not.

Far from it.


1.

I have a good life, I remind myself. There are plenty of people who love me. They’re just not around at the moment.

― Cynthia Hand

2.

When the world makes me feel like I am alone, love reminds me otherwise.

― Steve Maraboli

3.

I used to think that the worst thing in life was to end up all alone. It’s not. The worst thing in life is ending up with people who make you feel all alone.

— Robin Williams

4.

We come into this world alone, and we leave the same way. 

Jean Grey (Uncanny X-Men, Vol. 1, Issue 303, Scott Lobdell)

5.

If you want to be happy, learn to be alone without being lonely. Learn that being alone does not mean being unhappy. The world is full of plenty of interesting and enjoyable things to do and people who can enrich your life.

— Michael Josephson

6.

You are never alone; if you can talk to your conscience.

― M.F. Moonzajer

7.

I can be alone without being lonely. In fact, those times of solitude are necessary respite for a beleaguered soul, set upon by the pressures of life. I need to take whatever moments I can to just be still.

― Steve Goodier

8.

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

— Marilyn Monroe

9.

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

10.

What has really happened when you feel alone is that you’ve abandoned yourself. You have stopped taking care of your own basic needs — you don’t value yourself, you don’t listen to your own thoughts, and you don’t take care of your physical, emotional, or spiritual self. This is what is causing you to feel alone. You have abandoned you.

— Gregg Michaelsen

11.

I don’t want to be alone, I want to be left alone.

— Audrey Hepburn

12.

But there it is: Everyone is alone, for life, and maybe that’s not such a bad thing.

― Julianna Baggott

13.

Alone had always felt like an actual place to me, as if it weren’t a state of being, but rather a room where I could retreat to be who I really was.

— Cheryl Strayed

14.

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

15.

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.

— Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

16.

There is something immaculate about loneliness which only lonely people can understand.

— Munia Khan

17.

Loneliness expresses the pain of being alone and solitude expresses the glory of being alone.

— Pau Tillich

18.

I am not alone, in my aloneness.

― T. Scott McLeod

19.

Don’t you realize the Internet is just a way for millions of sad people to be completely alone together?

― Wayne Gladstone

20.

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

— Dr. Seuss

21.

Loneliness is and always has been the central and inevitable experience of every man.

— Thomas Wolfe

22.

I’m not much but I’m all I have.

— Philip K. Dick

23.

All great and precious things are lonely.

— John Steinbeck

24.

Being alone has a power that very few people can handle.

— Steven Aitchison

25.

The soul that sees beauty may sometimes walk alone.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

26.

What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured.

— Kurt Vonnegut

27.

Life could be wonderful if people would leave you alone.

— Charlie Chaplin

[Back To Top]

Inspirational Quotes On Being Alone

Sometimes being alone isn’t a bad thing.

In fact, it’s completely normal to like being alone.

It allows you to connect with yourself and learn and grow — and there are plenty of great ways to spend time alone at home.

These quotes are about channeling your loneliness into something productive and meaningful.

Being alone isn’t the same thing as being lonely!

1.

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

— Henry David Thoreau

2.

In solitude, the mind gains strength and learns to lean upon itself.

— Laurence Sterne

3.

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

— Hafez-e Shirazi

4.

The sun is alone too, but it still shines.

— uncredited

5.

I restore myself when I’m alone.

— Marilyn Monroe

6.

There is a magic in walking alone, in thinking alone: If there is no one to contact you around, the universe starts contacting you!

― Mehmet Murat Ildan

7.

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. Welcome to the human experience. But never again use another person’s body or emotions as a scratching post for your own unfulfilled yearnings. 

— Elizabeth Gilbert

8.

Look at the sky. We are not alone. The whole universe is friendly to us and conspires only to give the best to those who dream and work.

— A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

9.

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

10.

People in love always tried to match the singles together, but what they didn’t realize was that some people were meant to be alone. There was nothing wrong with that.

― S.H. Kolee

11.

You only grow when you are alone.

— Paul Newman

12.

The strongest man in the world is he who stands most alone.

— Henrick Ibsen

13.

I live in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity.

— Albert Einstein

14.

Without great solitude no serious work is possible.

— Pablo Picasso

15.

My favorite hobby is being alone. I like to be alone. I also like dancing, fishing, playing poker sometimes and vegetable gardening – corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, I have a big garden every year.

— Emanuel Steward

16.

Until you get comfortable with being alone, you’ll never know if you’re choosing someone out of love or loneliness.

— Mandy Hale

17.

Sitting alone, sleeping alone, acting alone, let the diligent one enjoy the forest, taming the self alone.

— Buddha

18.

The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.

— Michel de Montaigne

19.

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

— Warsan Shire

20.

By all means use sometimes to be alone. Salute thyself; see what thy soul doth wear.

— George Herbert

21.

Loneliness is sad, aloneness is blissful.

— Osho

22.

Loneliness adds beauty to life. It puts a special burn on sunsets and makes night air smell better.

— Henry Rollins

23.

If you make friends with yourself, you’ll never be alone.

― Maxwell Maltz

24.

Solitude is independence.

— Herman Hesse

25.

What a lovely surprise to finally discover how unlonely being alone can be.

— Ellen Burstyn

26.

Ultimately what I like about reading together is that we all make it happen together. Of course even amid shared experience we’re still alone… each reading of each book is unique. But what a comfort it is to share readings and experiences. How lucky we are when we get to be alone together.

— John Greene

In Conclusion

As you can see, there is no shortage of thoughts, musings, and writing about the experience of loneliness.

We hope these quotes will remind you that although you are feeling lonely, you aren’t truly alone.

Humans have been surviving loneliness for thousands of years — and so can you!