Loneliness Quotes

“The person suffering from loneliness anxiety is deeply suspicious. Even the slightest criticism hurts him. He often perceives non-existent deprecation in surface or tangential remarks. Because he feels such grave failure in everything he undertakes, because he constantly strives to raise his level of achievement and win praise and approval and at the same time employs devices and strategies which constantly alienate him from others, eventually he either gives up or responds with aggression to cover up his inner feeling of separation, anxiety, and despair.”
― Clark E. Moustakas, Loneliness

“Perhaps in arriving at the foundation of his grief and loneliness, immediate death or immediate life were the only choices within reach. He chose to live. From his rock bottom loneliness emerged a new life and a real self was restored.”
― Clark E. Moustakas, Loneliness

“Such depth of loneliness cannot be understood or communicated but it can be shared…He resolved if he came out alive to devote himself to good and creative works.”
― Clark E. Moustakas, Loneliness

“Loneliness leaves some after-effects. Mostly just a tired feeling. Not wanting to talk to anyone, not wanting to do anything. But, most of them can be remedied by just starting to do something. Something that you like to do.”
― Clark E. Moustakas, Loneliness

“Waiting for someone to rescue him from abandonment. Waiting. There was no one.”
― Clark E. Moustakas, Loneliness

“Byrd anticipated the crisis of loneliness. What he had not counted on was how closely a man could come to dying and still not die or want to die.”
― Clark E. Moustakas, Loneliness

“In spite of sheer concentration and every effort of will power, Byrd could not avoid the terrible evenness and loneliness of silence.”
― Clark E. Moustakas, Loneliness

“My family doesn’t understand me. They think I have these headaches because my business is failing. They think I roam the house at night, moving from bed to couch to chair to floor, because I’m worrying about my business. They think I’m worrying about new possibilities and plans. So they soften me and treat me gingerly. Husband and father must have a quiet house, so the house is quiet. He must not be upset, so he is avoided. He must not be expected to be friendly and sociable because he is passive and shy. He must be indirectly talked into doing what they want, in the right way, at the right moment. It takes careful planning. He must have sympathy, even if it’s false, to be able to face the tough, competitive world outside. They cannot and will not recognize that this man they handle with kid gloves, whom they fear upsetting, whom they decide has to be coddled and manipulated into buying new clothes, a new car, a new home, all the other possessions a family feels it must have, this man does not really exist and never did.”
― Clark E. Moustakas, Loneliness

“Often, I thought: “Surely this is it. He has reached the breaking point.” He seemed at the very end of his power and resources. But he kept coming until I wondered whether I had not reached the breaking point. The only thing that kept me going was the certainty that without me there would be no one.”
― Clark E. Moustakas, Loneliness

“I could never again see the evening sun fading into oblivion without feeling lonely.”
― Clark E. Moustakas, Loneliness