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Our language has wisely 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.

Loneliness expresses the pain of being alone and solitude expresses the glory of being alone.

Loneliness is the poverty of self; solitude is the richness of self.

There's a difference between solitude and loneliness.

Solitude is pleasant. Loneliness is not.

Solitude is the profoundest fact of the human condition. Man is the only being who knows he is alone.

Friendship needs no words - it is solitude delivered from the anguish of loneliness.

If loneliness is part of our essence, that is, our essential nature, that is only because of the way, in practical terms, we actually exist; that is, the way we move and work and live in the world.

Our uniqueness makes us special, makes perception valuable - but it can also make us lonely. This loneliness is different from being 'alone': You can be lonely even surrounded by people. The feeling I'm talking about stems from the sense that we can never fully share the truth of who we are. I experienced this acutely at an early age.