Elizabeth Barrett Browning Quotes

From that time on, the world was hers for the reading. She would never be lonely again, never miss the lack of intimate friends. Books became her friends and there was one for every mood.

I suppose what one wants really is ideal company and books are ideal company.

The companionship of dead writers is a wonderful form of live friendship.

I never feel lonely if I've got a book - they're like old friends. Even if you're not reading them over and over again, you know they are there. And they're part of your history. They sort of tell a story about your journey through life.

If I could always read, I should never feel the want of company.

Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.

My mother taught me how to read very early on and at school I was ahead of everyone in class... Reading was always something that I liked because I could do it alone and I was alone a lot of the time with my mother working the hours she did. Books became my friends very early on.

Books are solitudes in which we meet.

If books are not good company, where shall I find it?

Who wants to be used? I love to read, so books are my main friends. They're always available, always friendly, and always interesting, and they never make me choose sides.

I write because I want to end my loneliness. Books make people less alone. That, before and after everything else, is what books do. They show us that conversations are possible across distances.

The point of books is to combat loneliness.

A cat and a Bible, and nobody needs to be lonely.

The writers of books are companions in one's life and, as such, are often more interesting than other companions.

When everything is lonely I can be my best friend.

I was alone as a child. I lived in fairytales, adventures, Shakespeare. They are the friends, my books.

Booksellers are the most valuable destination for the lonely, given the numbers of books that were written because authors couldn't find anyone to talk to.

For me, books have always been a way to feel less alone while being alone. Perhaps if I was depressed and isolated, just communicating with these authors through their sentences helped me.

I really have lived in books. Books are friends. They are some of the friends that make you who you are.

Aloneness is nearer God, nearer reality.

That perfect tranquillity of life, which is nowhere to be found but in retreat, a faithful friend and a good library.

One of the things reading does, it makes your loneliness manageable if you are an essentially lonely person.

When you have a lot of solitude, any living thing becomes a companion.

I turn to books for a feeling of companionship: for somebody knowing what I have known.

Books support us in our solitude and keep us from being a burden to ourselves.