Quotes About Isolation

It is a frightful satire and an epigram on the modern age that the only use it knows for solitude is to make it a punishment, a jail sentence.

People understand me so little that they do not even understand when I complain of being misunderstood.

My soul is like the dead sea, over which no bird can fly; when it gets halfway, it sinks down spent to its death and destruction.

I have just returned from a party of which I was the life and soul; wit poured from my lips, everyone laughed and admired me–but I went away– and wanted to shoot myself.

Deep within every man there lies the dread of being alone in the world, forgotten by God, overlooked among the tremendous household of millions and millions.

I am alone, as I have always been; abandoned not by men, that would not pain me, but by the happy spirits of joy who in countless hosts encircled me, who met everywhere with their kind, pointed everywhere to an opportunity.

Deep within every man there lies the dread of being alone in the world, forgotten by God, overlooked among the household of millions upon millions.

To be isolated is always to assert oneself numerically; when you assert yourself as one, that is isolation.

What I complain of is that life is not like a novel where there are hard-hearted fathers, and goblins and trolls to fight with, enchanted princesses to free. What are all such enemies taken together compared to the pallid, bloodless, glutinous nocturnal shapes with which I fight and to which I myself give life and being.

she does not suspect how much reason I have for deprecating all sympathy.

My life is utterly meaningless

It may happen, however, that he falls into despair just for the fact that he has opened his heart to another; it may be that he thinks it would have been infinitely preferable to maintain silence rather than have anyone privy to his secret. There are examples of introverts who are brought to despair precisely because they have acquired a confidant.

Freedom is always in communication (even taking the religious meaning of the word into consideration does no harm); unfreedom withdraws ever more in its reserve and will not communicate.

The one knight of faith can render no aid to the other.

The greatest hazard of all, losing one's self, can occur very quietly in the world, as if it were nothing at all. ~ Søren Kierkegaard

To strive against the whole world is a comfort, to strive with oneself is dreadful.

In the constant sociability of our age people shudder at solitude to such a degree that they know no other use to put it to but (oh, admirable epigram!) as a punishment for criminals. But after all it is a fact that in our age it is a crime to have spirit, so it is natural that such people, the lovers of solitude, are included in the same class with criminals.

man who lives under his own supervision, alone in the whole world

Deep within every human being there still lives the anxiety over the possibility of being alone in the world, forgotten by God, overlooked among the millions and millions in this enormous household. A person keeps this anxiety at distance by looking at the many round about who are related to him as kin as friends, but the anxiety is still there.

Jeg kommer netop nu fra et Selskab, hvor jeg var Sjælen; Vittigheder strømmede ud fra min Mund, alle loe, beundrede mig - men jeg gik, ja den Tankestreg bør være ligesaa lang som Jordbanens Radier ------------------------------- hen og ville skyde mig selv.

Järjestelmään liittyy sulkeutuvuus, mutta olemassaolo on jotakin täsmälleen päinvastaista.

My life achievement amounts to nothing at all, a mood, a single color

Ningún caballero de la fe puede ayudar a otro. O bien se convierte el mismo Particular en caballero de la fe, pues cargó con la paradoja, o bien no llega nunca a serlo. En esa esfera resulta impensable cualquier compañerismo.

You'll have to leave my meals on a tray outside the door because I'll be working pretty late on the secret of making myself invisible, which may take me almost until eleven o'clock.