Loneliness is one of the most powerful and resonating emotions. It also seems to be an essential part of the human experience. There are times in our lives--the loss of a loved one, big changes and life-altering shifts, low self-esteem, feeling like you've been by yourself for far too long, internal struggles, this list goes on--and these times can make us feel incredibly empty. For me, reading the words of others who have been through similar circumstances brings me peace. Isn't it amazing how a series of letters strung together can make us feel something so powerful? Here are some beautifully comforting quotes for when the weight of loneliness is pressing on your heart.

"Wasn’t friendship its own miracle, the finding of another person who made the entire lonely world seem somehow less lonely?" - A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

"All I ever wanted was for someone to fight for me,
All I ever needed was to fight for myself." - Unknown

"Sure, I'm sad, but I'm not looking to soothe that sadness by replacing it with a new relationship. Women are allowed to be sad, and they're allowed to be single, and they don't need to hear that one day a man is going to make it all go away by telling her she is good enough again. She's good enough as she is." - Charlotte Green

"I spent so long in the darkness, I'd almost forgotten how beautiful the moonlight is." - The Corpse Bride by Tim Burton

"One day your heart will take you to your Lover. One day your soul will carry you to the Beloved. Don't get lost in your pain. Know that one day, your pain will become your cure." - Rumi

"We're supposed to feel. We're supposed to love. And hate. And hurt. And grieve. And break and be destroyed, and build ourselves to be destroyed again, that is human. That is humanity, that's being alive. That's the point. That's the entire point. Don't avoid it. Don't extinguish it." - Owen Hunt, Grey's Anatomy

"Sometimes I lie awake at night and I ask, 'Where have I gone wrong?' Then a voice says to me, 'This is going to take more than one night.'" - Charlie Brown

"Put your thoughts to sleep. Do not let them cast a shadow over your heart. Let go of thinking." - Rumi

"Show me your worst, the earth said to the storm. And I will blossom anyway." - Pavana

"Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping in intact, you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless--it will change. It will not be broken; it will be come unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love at all is to be vulnerable." - C.S. Lewis

"We are all broken. That's how the light gets in." - Ernest Hemingway

"Stop searching the ends of the earth for your missing half. It is within yourself." - Noor Shirazie

"When you finally let go, it is like opening your front door and seeing yourself standing there again. Welcome home, it has been so long." - The Art of Letting Go by Tina Tran