Brenda Ueland Quotes

I think a person needs to learn from childhood to find himself alone. It means to not be bored when you’re by yourself, because a person who finds himself bored when alone –as it seems to me– is in danger.

One's better off alone, and yet there are so many things that are impossible to fathom on one's own. In fact it's a terrible business and the task is a hard one.

Any man who is really a man must learn to be alone in the midst of others, to think alone for others, and, if necessary, against others.

In those days, I still thoroughly enjoyed the romance I called "by myself"; I didn't know yet how it gets lonely, picks up a sharp edge later on that ruins a day now and then-- ruins more than that, if you're not careful.

In what concerns you much, do not think that you have companions: know that you are alone in the world.

Me, myself and I. That's all I got in the end.

It's only when you're alone that you realize where you are. You have nothing to fall back on except your own resources.

One can be instructed in society, one is inspired only in solitude.

So it is necessary that we should learn to be alone.

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

The more powerful and original a mind, the more it will incline towards the religion of solitude.

My real guru are my experiences in life - the realisation that you are alone in this world came very early to me.

When we are away from home, our only constant companion is our self.

For those who know the value of and exquisite taste of solitary freedom (for one is only free when alone), the act of leaving is the bravest and most beautiful of all.

Make an island of yourself, make yourself your refuge; there is no other refuge. Make truth your island, make truth your refuge; there is no other refuge.

The New England spirit does not seek solutions in a crowd; raw light and solitariness are less dreaded than welcomed as enhancers of our essential selves.

Figure out who you are separate from your family, and the man or woman you're in a relationship with. Find who you are in this world and what you need to feel good alone. I think that's the most important thing in life. Find a sense of self because with that, you can do anything else.

True individuality can be lonely.

And so I learned what solitude really was. It was raw material - awesome, malleable,older than men or worlds or water. And it was merciless - for it let a man become precisely what he alone made of himself.

The greater the spirit, the more one is alone.

Sometimes I think you'll be fine by yourself Cause a dream is a wish you make all alone; It's easy to feel like you don't need help, But it's harder to walk on your own.

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

A man can be himself only so long as he is alone, and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom, for it is only when he is alone that he is really free.

Solitude, though it may be silent as light, is like light, the mightiest of agencies; for solitude is essential to man. All men come into this world alone and leave it alone.