Hands up if you love your alone time! These quotes on solitude will bring you peace when you need to retreat from the world to restore your energy. Enjoy your peace and quiet, dear friend. You’ve earned it!
The Meaning of Solitude
If you look of the meaning of solitude in the dictionary, it’ll say “the state of being alone or remote from society.” Followed by “a lonely or uninhabited place.” But for those of us who crave solitude, we know that solitude and loneliness are two very different things.
So what does solitude really mean? Solitude is about being alone, yes. But it’s about the self nourishment and personal growth that take place when you allow yourself to be in your own company without distraction (this means without social media, too!).
If you already appreciate solitude, you’ll resonate with these quotes. But if you feel lonely when you’re alone, that’s okay.
In fact, that’s wonderful because it means you have an opportunity for spiritual growth. Meditation will help you to get comfortable with your inner stillness, and these solitude quotes can help, too.
Why Is Solitude Important
Solitude occurs when you disconnect from the outside world for an extended period of time (at least a few hours). Intentional alone time is so important now more than ever, because it gives your body, mind, and spirit a chance to recover from the stress of daily life.
Even when you’re the only person in the room, you’re usually still being flooded with outside information from social media, TV, text messages, emails, and the list goes on. This puts pressure on you to react, and makes it very difficult to move out of stress response and into rest and repair mode.
Your nervous system deserves a break!
While solitude is important for not just introverts, the amount of alone time you need will also vary based on your personality.
In fact, your astrology will reveal quite a bit on this subject: Leo and Sagittarius people, for example are social creatures who love to be surrounded by their tribe. While Pisces, on the other hand, prioritizes solitude right up there with food and water!
So while a regular solitude practice is important for everyone, you’re the boss when it comes to how long and how often.
Benefits of Solitude
There are many benefits of being alone (in healthy doses based on your own personality), and they’re actually backed by science.
Whether you’re alone at home or enjoying a destination retreat, solitude can usher in life changing benefits, such as:
- inspire creativity
- increase mental endurance
- spark compassion for others
- usher in clarity
- help improve your sense of self
- reduce anxiety caused by social media/news/drama tv
- encourages mindfulness
Alone time is a very important part of spiritual self care, because it gives you a chance to detangle everyone else’s energy from your own.
I recommend adding solitude time to your schedule every week.
If you’re not comfortable without any planned activities or just sitting and meditating, plan to do some smudging of your space. It clears negative energy and ushers peace into your space. Or plan for your favorite self-care activities such as sacred bathing.
How Do You Enjoy Solitude
There are many ways to enjoy solitude, and your imagination is the only limit.
So while the way you spend your your sacred alone time will be personalized to you, there are a couple of boundaries to honor. Otherwise, you’re not in solitude:
- there are no other humans around (animals are welcome)
- hands off your device (it’s okay to use it for music or meditation, but no scrolling through social apps)
The rest is really up to you! While solitude is often associated with quiet time, there is certainly no rule that says you have to sit in silence, especially if you’re not in the mood.
The goal isn’t to force anything to happen. But rather, to dedicate time to be with yourself, doing whatever it is that you enjoy most in that moment.
Here are a few examples and suggestions for how to enjoy your solitude:
- Plan ahead – when your alone time is scheduled and you have an idea of how you’ll be spending your time, you’ll look forward to it
- Give yourself permission to switch it up – if you have a bath planned but you really feel like journaling instead, go for it. This is your time and it should feel like playtime, not like work
- Get support from your family – if you live with others and plan on being home for your solitude, be sure let them know what you’re doing so they can support you by giving you space
Things You Can Do During Solitude
Here are some ideas to fill your solitude time. What is your favorite alone time activity? Drop a comment at the end of this post and I’ll add them to the list!
- Meditate
- Take a nap
- Sacred bathing
- Go on a nature walk or hike
- Read a book
- Take a sauna
- Workout or do some yoga
- Cook your favorite meal
- Journal or creative writing
- Light cleaning or organization (only if this sort of thing is fun for you and only small projects that have no risk of causing stress)
- Practice mindfulness
- Art and crafts
- Coloring book
- Smudge your space
- Play an instrument
- Listen to music (feel free to dance or sing, too)
- Do some gardening
- Read through these alone time quotes
Peaceful Solitude Quotes
Below you’ll find a beautiful collection of solitude quotes to inspire, comfort, and encourage you. I hope they bring you peace.
“Solitude is creativity’s best friend, and solitude is refreshment for our souls.”
Naomi Judd
“Love your solitude and try to sing out with the pain it causes you.”
Rainer Maria Wilke
“In solitude the mind gains strength and learns to lean upon itself.”
Laurence Sterne
“There is a tremendous difference between alone and lonely. You could be lonely in a group of people. I like being alone. I like eating by myself – I go home at night and just watch a movie or hang out with my dog. And I have to exert myself and really say, oh God, I’ve got to see my friends because I’m too content by myself.”
Drew Barrymore
“The best thinking has been done in solitude.”
Thomas A. Edison
The monotony and solitude of a quiet life stimulates the creative mind.”
Albert Einstein
“The mind is sharper and keener in seclusion and uninterrupted solitude. Originality thrives in seclusion, free of outside influences beating upon us to cripple the creative mind. Be alone – that is the secret of invention: be alone. That is when ideas are born.”
Nikola Tesla
“All man’s miseries derive from not being able to sit quietly in a room alone.”
Blaise Pascal
“My imagination functions much better when I don’t have to speak to people.”
Patricia Highsmith
“I’m simply alone, living in my heavily populated solitude.”
Bohumil Hrabal
“One can be instructed in society, one is inspired only in solitude.”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“Solitude gives birth to the original in us, to beauty unfamiliar and perilous – to poetry.”
Thomas Mann
“Closed in a room, my imagination becomes the universe, and the rest of the world is missing out.”
Criss Jami
“In order to understand the world, one has to turn away from it on occasion.”
Albert Camus
Quotes on Loneliness Versus Solitude
“If you’re lonely when you’re alone, you’re in bad company.”
Jean Paul Sarte
“If I want to believe that life is lonely and that nobody loves me, then that is what I will find in my world.”
Louise Hay
“Loneliness is different than isolation and solitude. Loneliness is a subjective feeling where the connections we need are greater than the connections we have. In the gap, we experience loneliness. It’s distinct from the objective state of isolation, which is determined by the number of people around you.”
Vivek Murthy
“Our language has widely sensed the two sides of being alone. It 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.”
Paul Tillich
“You can never create love in your life by talking or thinking about being lonely. Feeling lonely and needy just pushes people away.”
Louise Hay
“There’s a difference between solitude and loneliness. I can understand the concept of being a monk for a while.”
Tom Hanks
“The reason that extended solitude seemed so hard to endure was not that we missed others but that we began to wonder if we ourselves were present, because for so long our existence depended upon assurances from them.”
Doris Grumbach
“The first relationship to improve is the one you have with yourself. If you’re looking for more love, then you need to love yourself more. This means no criticism, no complaining, no blaming, no whining, and no choosing to feel lonely. It means being very content with yourself in the present moment and choosing to think thoughts that make you feel good now.”
Louise Hay
“Loneliness is the poverty of self; solitude is the richness of self.”
May Sarton
Arthur Schopenhauer
“It is difficult to find happiness within oneself, but it is impossible to find it anywhere else.”
“The reason that extended solitude seemed so hard to endure was not that we missed others but that we began to wonder if we ourselves were present, because for so long our existence depended upon assurances from them.”
Doris Grumbach
“I live in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity.”
Albert Einstein
“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.”
Arthur Schopenhauer
“Silence is beautiful, not awkward. The human tendency to be afraid of something beautiful is awkward.”
Elliot Kay
“Solitude is very different from a ‘time-out’ from our busy lives. Solitude is the very ground from which community grows. Whenever we pray alone, study, read, write, or simply spend quiet time away from the places where we interact with each other directly, we are potentially opened for a deeper intimacy with each other.”
Henri Nouwen
“I had told people of my intention to be alone for a time. At once I realized they looked upon this declaration as a rejection of them and their company. I felt apologetic, even ashamed, that I would have wanted such a curious thing as solitude, and then sorry that I had made a point of announcing my desire for it. … To the spouse, or the long-time companion, or the family, and to the social circle, as it is called, the decision to be alone for any length of time is dangerous, threatening, a sign of rejection. … Having never felt the need to be alone themselves, having always lived happily in relationships, they looked upon my need as eccentric, even somewhat mad. But more than that, they saw it as fraudulent, an excuse to be rid of them rather than a desperate need to explore myself.”
Doris Grumbach
“Your inner voice is the voice of divinity. To hear it, we need to be in solitude, even in crowded places.”
-A. R. Rahman
“Your solitude will be a support and a home for you, even in the midst of very unfamiliar circumstances, and from it you will find all your paths.”
Rainer Maria Rilke
Rumi Quotes on Solitude
When you’re looking for inspirational quotes, Rumi often springs to mind.
Quotes on solitude are no exception. Here is a collection of the best Rumi quotes on solitude. If these quotes speak to you, and if you are a lover of poetry, you may want to check out this collection of his work: The Essential Rumi, New Expanded Edition
“No more words. In the name of this place we drink in with our breathing, stay quiet like a flower. So the night-birds will start singing.”
Rumi
“Silence is the language of God.”
Rumi
Let silence take you to the core of life.
Rumi
“I have been a seeker and I still am, but I stopped asking the books and the stars. I started listening to the teaching of my Soul.”
Rumi
“A white flower grows in the quietness. Let your tongue become that flower.”
Rumi
“If you love someone, you are always joined with them–in joy, in absence, in solitude, in strife.”
Rumi
“A little while alone in your room will prove more valuable than anything else that could ever be given you.”
Rumi
“In Silence there is eloquence.”
Rumi
Introvert Quotes on Solitude
OK we’ve already established that solitude isn’t just for introverts! But honestly, we introverted people cherish our alone time.
If you haven’t read Susan Cain’s book, Quiet: The Power of Introverts In a World That Can’t Stop Talking, you need to check it out. Amazon offers a free excerpt from the book, and many of the quotes below are taken from it.
Enjoy, fellow introverts!
“An introvert’s desire for solitude is more than just a preference. It is crucial to our health and happiness.”
Michaela Chung
“I have to be alone very often. I’d be quite happy if I spent from Saturday night until Monday morning alone in my apartment. That’s how I refuel.”
Audrey Hepburn
“Solitude matters, and for some people, it’s the air they breathe.”
Susan Cain
“Let’s clear one thing up: Introverts do not hate small talk because we dislike people. We hate small talk because we hate the barrier it creates between people.”
Laurie Helgoe
“Don’t think of introversion as something that needs to be cured. Spend your free time the way you like, not the way you think you’re supposed to.”
Susan Cain
“After an hour or two of being socially on, we introverts need to turn off and recharge. This isn’t antisocial. It isn’t a sign of depression.”
Jonathan Rauch
“The same person who would never raise his hand in a lecture hall of two hundred people might blog to two thousand, or two million, without thinking twice. The same person who finds it difficult to introduce himself to strangers might establish a presence online and then extend these relationships into the real world.”
Susan Cain
Conclusion
I hope these quotes on solitude inspire you to carve out more time for yourself, because you are worthy of your own loving attention. Leave me a comment with your favorite solitude quote!
XO, Andrea
Andrea Scalisi
Andrea has been practicing Astrology, Numerology, and Tarot for many years. She is a certified Aromatherapist and Reiki Master in Central NY, and also holds a Masters Degree from Syracuse University. Andrea loves helping her readers bring more spiritual self-care into their lives.
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Love this article so much! Whether it be snuggling under a blanket with my dogs or sitting in the sun listening to the birds, solitude fills my soul with peace and restores my ability to function in this world.
I’m so glad you enjoyed, Kathy! Thank you for this beautiful comment☀️
Thank you for the collaboration of all these quotes. So incredibly helpful💗💗💗🙏
Ami you made my day! ☀️I’m so you enjoy the post.💜 Enjoy your sacred solitude time.