“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 Primary source“People are islands,” she said. “They don’t really touch. However close they are, they’re really quite separate. Even if they’ve been married for fifty years.”
— Ian Fleming Primary source“There are particular occasions when one may be most painfully moved to see a person standing utterly alone in the world. The other day I saw a poor girl walking utterly alone to church to be confirmed.”
— Søren Kierkegaard Primary source“Where should we go? I don’t care. Anywhere you want. Anywhere we don’t know people.”
— Ernest Hemingway Primary source“Painters, writers, musicians are lonely people. So are statesmen and admirals and generals. But then, I added to be fair, so are criminals and lunatics. Let's just say, not to be too flattering, that true Individuals are lonely.”
— Ian Fleming Primary source“Why, darling, I don’t live at all when I’m not with you.”
— Ernest Hemingway Primary source“Have you felt it, too? Have you seen how your best friends love everything about you—except the things that count? And your most important is nothing to them, nothing, not even a sound they can recognize.”
— Ayn Rand Primary sourceSolitude Loneliness Travel Love Togetherness