Paulo Coelho Quotes

A life without a lonely place, that is, a life without a quiet center, easily becomes destructive. When we cling to the results of our actions as our only way of self-identifiction, then we become possessive and defensive and tend to look at our fellow human beings more as enemies to be kept at a distance than as friends with whom we share the gifts of life.

I like being alone and I think this movie, as much as it is an investigation of connection and people bonding, I also think it's just as much about loneliness.

The stuff that matters in life is no longer stuff. It's other people. It's relationships. It's experience.

Aloneness is nearer God, nearer reality.

Solitude does not pull us away from our fellow human beings but instead makes real fellowship possible.

Isolation, but it's a good vulnerability. Humbling. I actually seek out solitude.

You can be with other people, which is ideal, or you can be alone.

People always get tired of one another. I grow tired of myself whenever I am left alone for ten minutes, and I am certain that I am fonder of myself than anyone can be of another person.

It is right that you have to have a tolerance for solitude. But when that solitude bears fruit, you can abandon it. You can be in the company of others.

To live a spiritual life we must first find the courage to enter into the desert of loneliness and to change it by gentle and persistent efforts into a garden of solitude.

People who grow bored in their own company seem to me in danger.

Isolation must precede true society.

Remember: the time you feel lonely is the time you most need to be by yourself. Life's cruelest irony.

Solitude. One knows instinctively it has benefits that must be more deeply satisfying than those of other conditions, but still it is difficult.

I have a tendency to go through my life at full speed and as a one-man band, and so I don't generally stop and take in other people enough to develop many relationships. I'm starting to regret that a bit. I want to change it.

I used to live a very social life and never spend much solitary time looking at birds or reading.

I think the hardest thing about my life is that I've met so many people all over the world who I love, but they're not friends with each other.

I want to be around people, not crickets.

If you can't be with yourself, you'll never learn to be with anyone else.

Friends are like windows through which you see out into the world and back into yourself. If you don't have friends you see much less than you otherwise might.

Then stirs the feeling infinite, so felt In solitude, where we are least alone.

Language... 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.

I've dated people who I thought were going to be a big deal in my life, and I've also spent long periods by myself.

I didn't mind the 23 hours a day solitary confinement for the majority of the time, because after the first few years in prison, when I stopped being angry and started to like myself and understand myself, it was OK. I still enjoy my own company sometimes.

I don't think it's been healthy what I've done in my life to get to where I am mentally and otherwise, but it is the path I've chose. I'm not married, no family, and my hobbies are my loves.