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What makes loneliness an anguish is not that I have no one to share my burden, but this: I have only my own burden to bear.
Dag Hammarskjold
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Loneliness is painful because it is a personal experience of carrying one's own struggles without external support.

This quote emphasizes that the true anguish of loneliness stems not just from the absence of companionship, but from the intrinsic nature of one's personal struggles. It highlights the weight of individual burdens that one must carry alone, suggesting that the isolation in dealing with one's issues can be more distressing than the lack of social connection itself.

Themes

LonelinessBurdenAnguishSolitudePersonal Struggle

In practice

Example use cases

This quote could be used in a mental health awareness seminar to emphasize the importance of acknowledging personal struggles.

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Do not seek death. Death will find you. But seek the road which makes death a fulfillment.
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The world cannot live at peace without the United Nations. For this reason: it creates a reasonable guarantee that all this change in the world, these tremendous political and economic developments, can be channelized, kept orderly. The United Nations is a mold that keeps the hot metal from spilling over.
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In a dream I walked with God through the deep places of creation; past walls that receded and gates that opened through hall after hall of silence, darkness and refreshment--the dwelling place of souls acquainted with light and warmth--until, around me, was an infinity into which we all flowed together and lived anew, like the rings made by raindrops falling upon wide expanses of calm dark waters.
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He is one of those who has had the wilderness for a pillow, and called a star his brother. Alone. But loneliness can be a communion.
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