"Though I may think it is peculiar to myself, loneliness is part of the human condition. To remind me of that and for sharing I carry this quote around in my wallet:
According to the Teachers, there is only one thing that all people possess equally. That is loneliness. No two people on the face of this earth are alike in any one thing except for their loneliness. This is the cause of our growing, but it is also the cause of our wars. Love, hate, greed and generosity are all rooted within our loneliness, within our desire to be needed and loved.
If we could dare to face and accept the fact that we are alone, then we would know that every other person is also alone. It does not matter how surrounded the other is by friends and family. She, too, is alone. If we could know with certainty that well-guarded secret, perhaps we could move towards the other with more compassion, be less ready to judge, less quick to do those things which will cause the other to withdraw from us. yet loneliness is the secret we keep from ourselves as well as from others. It is as though some shame were connected with it - if I am not loved, I must somehow be responsible for it."
- Elizabeth O'Connor, Cry Pain, Cry Hope (p54)