Loneliness

"There walked a lonely man, silent, mute, the only man Not knowing how, not knowing why was he the sole survivor Why should he be alive, breathing still while others died And the only question, why was he the sole survivor? Sole survivor, cursed with second sight Haunted saviour, cried into the night."

"My people were once around me like the sands of the shore—many—many. They have all passed away. They have died like the grass. They have gone to the mountains. I do not complain; the antelope falls with the arrow. I had a son. I loved him. When the palefaces came he went away. I do not know where he is. I am a Christian Indian; I am all that is left of my people. I am alone."

"Who knows what true happiness is? Not the conventional word but the naked terror. To the lonely themselves, it wears a mask. The most miserable outcast hugs some memory or some illusion."

"It has been said that people of the modern world suffer a great sadness, a "species loneliness"—estrangement from the rest of Creation. We have built this isolation with our fear, with our arrogance, and with our homes brightly lit against the night."

"Its not that I hate people, I just feel better when theyre not around."

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

"I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each. I do not think that they will sing to me."

"Loneliness / Got a mind of its own / The more people around / The more you feel alone"

"It is loneliness that makes the loudest noise. This is as true of men as of dogs."

"Theyre sharing a drink they call loneliness But its better than drinking alone."

"The Savage interrupted him. "But isnt it natural to feel theres a God?" "You might as well ask if its natural to do up ones trousers with zippers," said the Controller sarcastically. "You remind me of another of those old fellows called Bradley. He defined philosophy as the finding of bad reason for what one believes by instinct. As if one believed anything by instinct! One believes things because one has been conditioned to believe them. Finding bad reasons for what one believes for other bad reasons–thats philosophy. People believe in God because theyve been conditioned to. "But all the same," insisted the Savage, "it is natural to believe in God when youre alone–quite alone, in the night, thinking about death …" "But people never are alone now," said Mustapha Mond. "We make them hate solitude; and we arrange their lives so that its almost impossible for them ever to have it."

"All the lonely people, where do they all come from?"