In short: the Buddha praised time alone as a place to tame the mind, not as loneliness. "Sitting alone, sleeping alone… one who tames themselves alone would delight within a forest" (Dhammapada 305).
1. Dhammapada 305
"Sitting alone, sleeping alone, tirelessly wandering alone; one who tames themselves alone would delight within a forest."
Dhammapada 305 · More
2. Dhammapada 330
"It's better to wander alone, there's no fellowship with fools. Wander alone and do no wrong, at ease like a tusker in the wilds."
Dhammapada 330
3. Dhammapada 61
"If while wandering you find no partner equal or better than yourself, then firmly resolve to wander alone— there's no fellowship with fools."
Dhammapada 61
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4. Dhammapada 362
"One restrained in hand and foot, and in speech, the supreme restraint; happy inside, serene, solitary, content, I call a mendicant."
Dhammapada 362
5. Dhammapada 404
"Mixing with neither householders nor the homeless; a migrant with no bastion, few in wishes: that's who I declare a brahmin."
Dhammapada 404
6. Dhammapada 80
"While irrigators guide water, fletchers bend arrows straight, and carpenters bend timber straight, the astute tame themselves."
Dhammapada 80
All quotes are from the early Buddhist texts in Bhikkhu Sujato's translation on SuttaCentral, copied exactly. Last checked: 18 October 2026.
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Questions people ask
What did the Buddha say about being alone?
He praised solitude for taming the mind: 'Sitting alone, sleeping alone, tirelessly wandering alone; one who tames themselves alone would delight within a forest' (Dhammapada 305).