I was always on my oddy knocky. Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange
I only go out to get me a fresh appetite for being alone. Lord Byron
But ’midst the crowd, the hum, the shock of men,
To hear, to see, to feel, and to possess,
And roam along, the world’s tired denizen,
With none who bless us, none whom we can bless. Lord Byron, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Canto II:26
This is to be alone; this, this is solitude! ibid. II:26
In solitude, when we are least alone. ibid. III:90
Among them, but not of them. ibid. III:113
’Tis solitude should teach us how to die;
It hath no flatterers; vanity can give
No hollow aid; alone – man with his God must strive. ibid. IV:33
The trouble is not really in being alone, it’s being lonely. One can be lonely in the midst of a crowd, don’t you think? Christine Feehan, Dark Prince
You see, the point is that the strongest man in the world is he who stands most alone. Henrik Ibsen, An Enemy of the People
‘Oh boy, I don't know how did I ended up here? ... I felt very lonely at times in recent years ...’ The Secret Tapes of O J Simpson, tapes prior to Bronco chase, CI 2015
I am now quite cured of seeking pleasure in society, be it country or town. A sensible man ought to find sufficient company in himself. Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights, Mr Lockwood
I know nothing – nothing in the world – of the hearts of men. I only know that I am alone – horribly alone. Ford Madox Ford, The Good Soldier
But when Leon lost his rematch with Ali in August of 1978, the gladhanders suddenly disappeared. Leon trudged that long lonely mile back to his hotel room all alone. Jim Brady, The Men Who Could Beat Ali But Still Couldn’t Win
I was in the killing game. And I travelled alone. Always alone. The Detonator 2006 starring Wesley Snipes & Silvia Colloca & Tim Dutton & William Hope & Matthew Leitch & Michael Brandon & Stuart Milligan, director Po Chih Leong, Wesley
So he was deserted. The whole world was clamouring: Kill yourself, kill yourself, kill yourself, for our sakes. But why should he kill himself for their sakes? Food was pleasant; the sun hot; and this killing onself, how does one go about it, with a table knife, uglily, with floods of blood, – by sucking a gaspipe? He was too weak; he could scarcely raise his hand. Besides, now he was quite alone, condemned, deserted, as those who are about to to die are alone, there was a luxury in it, an isolation full of sublimity; a freedom which the attached can never know. Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway
In the midst of friends, home, and kind parents, she was alone. William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair
They had discovered before anyone else the underlying weakness with the new individualism: that you were free but you were alone. Adam Curtis, Can’t Get You Out of My Head III: Money Changes Everything, BBCiplayer 2021
The silence persists; we remain alone ... We are unique. Brian Cox, Human Universe III: Are We Alone? BBC 2014
The very fine line between loneliness and solitude, reflection; being alone always appealed to me when I was a kid. Brad Mehldau
You notice things others don’t. You question what others blindly accept. And slowly, people begin to drift away. Psyphos podcast: Schopenhauer: Smart = Alone: Why Society Rejects the Trully Intelligent, Youtube 2025
Deep down you feel a stranger among your own kind. ibid.
What if society just is not built for people like you? ibid.
The more deeply you think, you more alienated you become. ibid.
Your loneliness might be the highest proof of your mind. ibid.
It’s social exile. Because when you can see through the game, you stop playing it. ibid.
Schopenhauer: He believed that life at core was suffering, and that the more conscious you are, the more you feel it. ibid.
A man can be himself only so long as he is alone. ibid.
You see the world for what it is: A dance of illusions powered by unconscious craving. ibid.
You are not broken. You are just awake. ibid.
Because their minds crave depth, muance, ideas, not gossip, repetition or emotional noise. ibid.
This sensitivity is not a super-power, it is a burden. ibid.
Solitude is not just an escape, it’s a reclamation of your mind, of your time, of your energy. ibid.
[Michel de Montaigne]: ‘The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to yourself.’ Psyphoria podcasts: The Art of Not Caring: When You Embrace Uncertainty, Life Becomes Easier, Youtube 2025
Have you ever stopped to think about how much of your anguish comes from your obsession with control? … Internal control: the suffocating need for certainties, to know what will happen tomorrow. ibid.
No more certainties, but a new relationship with what cannot be controlled. ibid.
Montaigne was not an ordinary philosopher … He wrote from within his own skin. ibid.
Montaigne embraced the opposite: he did not know. ibid.
In a time when everyone shouts, he whispers. ibid.
Anxiety is the fear of the unpredictable. ibid.
It’s the desire for life to be different from what it is. ibid.
[Carl Jung]: ‘Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.’ Psyphoria podcasts: You Must Let Go: Who to Let Go From Someone Who Hurts You
You say that you want to forget, to move on. But tell me, why do you still think about that person every day? ibid.
You miss what you projected on to them: the illusion of love. ibid.
Often what we call love is just our shadow clinging to someone. ibid.
As long as you continue to seek outside what is missing inside, you will be enternally imprisoned by the gaze of the other. ibid.
The unconscious search for validation and the price paid for betraying oneself. ibid.
If deep down you feel like you are living a lie, you will continue to feel empty. ibid.
The role of the shadow in repeating toxic patterns. ibid.
Carl Jung defined the shadow as ‘everything you do not want to be, but are’. ibid.
Burying is not eliminating. ibid.
You will have to face everything you have avoided. ibid.
[Schopenhauer]: ‘A high degree of intellect tends to make a man unsocial.’ Psyphoria podcasts: Pretend to be Dumb: You Will Never Want to be Smart Again: Schopenhauer
There is a price to intelligence … On the contrary, they suffer more. ibid.
The truth is not something people want to hear … because the truth is unsettling. ibid.
A brilliant mind is a curse because it destroys illusions. ibid.
Intelligence brings with it an increase in sensitivity. ibid.
[Dostoyevsky]: ‘The darker the night, the brighter the stars. The deeper the grief, the closer is God.’ Psyphoria podcasts: Stop Trying: The More You Try to be Happy, The More You’ll Suffer
You are tired, aren’t you? Tired of chasing a happiness that never arrives. You wake up and feel an emptiness. You go to sleep and it’s still there. ibid.
He [Dostoyevsky] knew that this modern obssession with being happy is a disease disguised as a solution. ibid.
‘Suffering is the only source of consciousness.’ ibid. Dostoyevsky
Being happy has become an obligation. ibid.
The false promise of positive thinking. ibid.
Dostoyevsky saw suffering as a path to true freedom. ibid.
What if you stopped trying to be happy? ibid.
[Carl Jung]: ‘I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become.’ Psyphoria podcasts: Stop Giving a Fuck: Nothing & Nobody Will Ever Hurt You Again: Carl Jung
Have you ever wished to be someone who is unshakable? Someone who doesn’t care about rejection, loss or betrayal? ibid.
The biggest lie that you’ve been told is that you are in control of your life. Wake up because you’re not. ibid.
But control is an illusion. ibid.
What you need is not more control but more awareness. ibid.
You have already gone through the fire. You have faced your monsters. ibid.
Nothing will shield you from external suffering. ibid.
[Carl Jung]: ‘Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.’ Psyphoria podcasts: Carl Jung: It’s Time To Say No More: You Have No Idea the Self-Love That Awakens Ater Saying No More
There comes a moment in every person’s life when without warning something inside breaks. It’s not sadness. It’s not anger. It’s something deeper. It feels as if the soul itself grows tired of carrying the weight of other people’s expectations, of holding on to relationships that only drain. ibid.
The beginning of a true process of individuation. ibid.
A silent scream that has been waiting years to be heard. ibid.
When you say no more, you are facing your shadow head-on. ibid.
You begin to reclaim your energy. ibid.
You can never go back to being the person you were before you woke up. ibid.