Social Isolation Quotes

“The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted.”
― D.H. Lawrence, Studies in Classic American Literature

“A fine line separates the weary recluse from the fearful hermit. Finer still is the line between hermit and bitter misanthrope.”
― Dean Koontz, Velocity

“It is a rare person who can cut himself off from mediate and immediate relations with others for long spaces of time without undergoing a deterioration in personality.”
― Harry Stack Sullivan, The Interpersonal Theory of Psychiatry

“Marginalised and abused children are often overlooked even today, and risk becoming marginalised and abused adults who may never receive acknowledgment or respect for the immense physical and emotional burden they carry from childhood or indeed have their full potential realised.”
― Jane Hersey, Full Circle

“She could not then know that, even for the squarest peg, the right hole may ultimately be found”
― Henry Handel Richardson, The Getting of Wisdom

“No more fiendish punishment could be devised, were such a thing physically possible, than that one should be turned loose in society and remain absolutely unnoticed.”
― William James

“In that moment, just before expertly wiping my browser history, I felt less alone.”
― Ella Braidwood

“Every moment of attention we spend scrolling through social media is attention spent making money for someone else. The numbers are staggering: a New York Times analysis calculated that as of 20414, Facebook users were spending a collective 39,757 years' worth of attention on the site, every single day. It's attention that we didn't spend on our families, or our friends, or ourselves. And just like time, once we've spent attention, we can never get it back.

This is a really big deal, because our attention is the most valuable thing we have. We experience only what we pay attention to. We remember only what we pay attention to. When we decide what to pay attention to in the moment, we are making a broader decision about how we want to spend our lives.”
― Catherine Price, How to Break Up with Your Phone: The 30-Day Plan to Take Back Your Life

“If you wanted to invent a device that could rewire our minds, if you wanted to create a society of people who were perpetually distracted, isolated, and overtired, if you wanted to weaken our memories and damage our capacity for focus and deep thought, if you wanted to reduce empathy, encourage self-absorption, and redraw the lines of social etiquette, you'd likely end up with a smartphone.”
― Catherine Price, How to Break Up with Your Phone: The 30-Day Plan to Take Back Your Life

“Why does the world not rebel against a capitalistic society that places the right to pursue greed ahead of the collective good of a community? Why do so many people who live next door or across a hallway from one another never speak to their neighbors? Why do so many people go to great lengths to avoid interacting with their neighbors by installing tall privacy fences and timing their ingress and egress to avoid unscripted encounters with one another? In an age where electronic advances makes communicating with people a rapid convenience, why is it that we live as a species more isolated than ever before from people outside our immediate enclave?”
― Kilroy J. Oldster

“Sammie says, "Happiness from a joyful walk, is sharing friendship, laughter, and talk.”
― D.R. Gallardo, Sammie the Support Shepherd

“They lose the touch of keeping in touch. That’s and art in itself.”
― Kay Dick, They: A Sequence of Unease

“Blyat! Now, of all times? You’ve got to be kidding me...” Dmitry’s tirade echoed in the room as he gave his TV a fervent smack. Out of the blue, for no apparent reason, the ancient set, with its worn-out brand logo and buttons that had been pressed one too many times, had decided to rebel against him.”
― Luna M. Leon, Of Sturgeon and Carrie Bradshaw

“Davai, come on!” Dmitry grumbled impatiently as his gaze drifted toward the inviting dinner on his plate: a delectable dish of Sibirskiye Pelmeni. These impeccably crafted Siberian-style meat dumplings, topped with a dollop of rich sour cream, looked as though they’d been plucked right out of a foodie’s well-curated Instagram feed. However, the promise of their rich flavor had been momentarily eclipsed by the drama of the recalcitrant television—an antiquity that usually served as Dmitry’s trusty portal to the world but today, for some reason, obstinately refused to fulfill its duties.”
― Luna M. Leon, Of Sturgeon and Carrie Bradshaw