55 Inspiring Quotes On Distance

In a world that often feels boundless yet paradoxically confined, the concept of distance evokes a rich tapestry of emotions and reflections. Whether it involves physical miles separating loved ones, the emotional gulf between individuals, or the metaphorical space on the journey to personal goals, distance holds profound meaning. It challenges us, shapes us, and at times, inspires us to bridge the gaps. Through the power of words, many have endeavored to encapsulate the essence of distance, imbuing it with wisdom, hope, and even comfort. In this collection, we bring to you 55 meticulously chosen quotes that illuminate the beauty and complexity of distance, encouraging introspection and offering solace to those journeying through their own separations. Join us as we explore these timeless sentiments, each one a beacon guiding us across the distances in our lives.

1. “Time is the longest distance between two places.” - Tennessee Williams

2. “Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.” - Arthur C. Clarke

3. “The rules say that to tell a story you need first of all a measuring stick, a calendar, you have to calculate how much time has passed between you and the facts, the emotions to be narrated.” - Elena Ferrante

4. “If you want to be a successful runner, you have to consider everything. It's no good just thinking about endurance and not to develop fine speed.” - Arthur Lydiard

5. “I didnt pay atteniton to times or distance, instead focusing on how it felt just to be in motion, knowing it wasn't about the finish line but how I got there that mattered.” - Sarah Dessen

6. “Fly me up to where you are beyond the distant star. I wish upon tonight to see you smile, if only for a while to know you're there. A breath away's not far to where you are.” - Josh Groban

7. “It seemed that we loved each other better when there were large swaths of two continents between us. The daily work of love was often hard to perform at home. ” - Aleksandar Hemon

8. “If you listen to the wind very carefully, you'll be able to hear me whisper my love for you.” - Andrew Davidson

9. “I tried to put things in perspective but sometimes you're just too close to it.” - Cormac McCarthy

10. “Above all human existence requires stability, the permanence of things. The result is an ambivalence with respect to all great and violent expenditure of strength; such an expenditure, whether in nature or in man, represents the strongest possible threat. The feelings of admiration and of ecstasy induced by them thus mean that we are concerned to admire them from afar. The sun corresponds to that prudent concern. It is all radiance gigantic loss of heat and light, flame, explosion; but remote from men, who can enjoy in safety and quiet the fruits of this cataclysm. To earth belongs the solidity which sustains houses of stone and the steps of men (at least on its surface, for buried within the depths of the earth is the incandescence of lava).” - Georges Bataille

11. “I imagine a line, a white line, painted on the sand and on the ocean, from me to you.” - Jonathan Safran Foer

12. “Às vezes a distância não conta, pensou, às vezes reduz-se ao silêncio breve que espaça as batidas de um coração.” - Colleen McCullough

13. “The back windows looked out over the fields, then the Atlantic, maybe a hundred yards away. Actually, I'm just making that bit up. I had no idea how far away the sea was. Only men could do things like that. "Half a mile." "Fifty yards." Giving directions, that sort of thing. I could look at a woman and say "Thirty-six C." Or "Let's try it in the next size up." But I had no idea how far away Tim's sea was except that I wouldn't want to walk to it in high heels.” - Marian Keyes

14. “Once upon a time there were two countries, at war with each other. In order to make peace after many years of conflict, they decided to build a bridge across the ocean.But because they never learned each other’s language properly, they could never agree on the details, so the two halves of the bridge they started to build never met.To this day the bridge extends far into the ocean from both sides, and simply ends half way, miles in the wrong direction from the meeting point.And the two countries are still at war.” - Vera Nazarian

15. “Little sister don't you worry about a thing todayTake the heat from the sunLittle sisterI know that everything is not okBut you're like honey on my tongueTrue love never can be rentBut only true love can keep beauty innocentI could never take a chanceOf losing love to find romanceIn the mysterious distanceBetween a man and a womanNo I could never take a chance'Cause I could never understandThe mysterious distanceBetween a man and a womanYou can run from loveAnd if it's really love it will find youCatch you by the heelBut you can't be numb for loveThe only pain is to feel nothing at allHow can I hurt when I'm holding you?I could never take a chanceOf losing love to find romanceIn the mysterious distanceBetween a man and a womanAnd you're the one, there's no-one elsewho makes me want to lose myselfIn the mysterious distanceBetween a man and a womanBrown eyed girl across the streetOn rue Saint DivineI thought this is the one for meBut she was already mineYou were already mine...Little sisterI've been sleeping in the street againLike a stray dogLittle sisterI've been trying to feel complete againBut you're gone and so is GodThe soul needs beauty for a soul mateWhen the soul wants...the soul waits ...No I could never take a chanceOf losing love to find romanceIn the mysterious distanceBetween a man and a womanFor love and FAITH AND SEX and fearAnd all the things that keep us hereIn the mysterious distanceBetween a man and a womanHow can I hurt when I'm holding you?” - U2

16. “It is a long way off, sir""From what Jane?""From England and from Thornfield: and ___""Well?""From you, sir” - Charlotte Brontë

17. “He had also been demonstrative and intelligent from the very beginning, his questions startlingly insightful. She would watch him absorb a new idea and wonder what effect it would have on him, because, with Edgar, EVERYTHING came out, eventually, somehow. But the PROCESS – how he put together a story about the world’s workings – that was mysterious beyond all ken. In a way, she thought, it was the only disappointing thing about having a child. She’d imagined he would stay transparent to her, more PART of her, for so much longer. But despite the proximity of the daily work, Edgar had ceased long before to be an open book. A friend, yes. A son she loved, yes. But when it came to knowing his thoughts, Edgar could be opaque as a rock.” - David Wroblewski

18. “Her stare fixed me. Without rancour and without regret; without triumph and without evil; as Desdemona once looked back on Venice. On the incomprehension, the baffled rage of Venice. I had taken myself to be in some way the traitor Iago punished, in an unwritten sixth act. Chained in hell. But I was also Venice; the state left behind; the thing journeyed from.” - John Fowles

19. “Distance has the same effect on the mind as on the eye.” - Samuel Johnson

20. “Sometimes the things that are felt the most are expressed between two souls over the distance and over time...where no words abide. And others may speak freely, live with one another freely, express themselves freely– just like everyone else, but then there is you... you have no words for proof of reassurance, no tokens of professed love, but you have something. Something worth keeping.” - C. JoyBell C.

21. “sad things are beautiful only from a distancetherefore you just want to get away from themfrom a distance of one hundred and thirty years ....i'm going to distance myself until the world is beautiful” - Tao Lin

22. “The scariest thing about distance is that you don’t know whether they’ll miss you or forget you.” - Nicholas Sparks

23. “Hadley realises that even though everything else is different, even though there's still an ocean between them, nothing really important has changed at all.He's still her dad. The rest is just geography.” - Jennifer E. Smith

24. “Everything seems simpler from a distance.” - Gail Tsukiyama

25. “So they were pen pals now, Emma composing long, intense letters crammed with jokes and underlining, forced banter and barely concealed longing; two-thousand-word acts of love on air-mail paper. Letters, like compilation tapes, were really vehicles for unexpressed emotions and she was clearly putting far too much time and energy into them. In return, Dexter sent her postcards with insufficient postage: ‘Amsterdam is MAD’, ‘Barcelona INSANE’, ‘Dublin ROCKS. Sick as DOG this morning.’ As a travel writer, he was no Bruce Chatwin, but still she would slip the postcards in the pocket of a heavy coat on long soulful walks on Ilkley Moor, searching for some hidden meaning in ‘VENICE COMPLETELY FLOODED!!!!” - David Nicholls

26. “He had been violently confused by her real presence in the opposite inaccessible corner. For months he had been possessed by the imagination of her. She had been distant and closed away, a princess in a tower, and his imagination’s work had been all to make her present, all of her, to his mind and senses, the quickness of her and the mystery, the whiteness of her, which was part of her extreme magnetism, and the green look of those piercing or occluded eyes. Her presence had been unimaginable, or more strictly, only to be imagined. Yet here she was, and he was engaged in observing the ways in which she resembled, or differed from, the woman he dreamed, or reached for in sleep, or would fight for.” - A. S. Byatt

27. “It looks a lot better from up here than it does down there, dont it? Yes. It does. There's a lot of things look better at a distance. Yeah? I think so. I guess there are. The life you've lived, for one. Yeah. Maybe what of it you aint lived yet, too.” - Cormac McCarthy

28. “And so man, as existing transcendence abounding in and surpassing toward possibilities, is a creature of distance. Only through the primordial distances he establishes toward all being in his transcendence does a true nearness to things flourish in him.” - Martin Heidegger

29. “I believe in the immeasurable power of love; that true love can endure any circumstance and reach across any distance.” - Steve Maraboli

30. “There’s something about sitting alone in the dark that reminds you how big the world really is, and how far apart we all are. The stars look like they’re so close, you could reach out and touch them. But you can’t. Sometimes things look a lot closer than they are.” - Kami Garcia

31. “At the end of the day your ability to connect with your readers comes down to how you make them feel.” - Benjamin J. Carey

32. “We stand a professional distance apart, as if I can’t feel his pain screaming in my head. Mine amplifies his; they share a joint sound—that of glass breaking—until they swell to a crescendo that deafens.” - Ann Aguirre

33. “Distance does not break off the friendship absolutely, but only the activity of it.” - Aristotle

34. “As the crow flies. That’s how she liked to walk. So what if she had nowhere to go? So what if no one on earth knew or probably cared where she was or when she’d get home? That wasn’t the point. It didn’t mean she had to take the long way. She was starting a new school in the morning, and she meant to put as much distance between herself and tomorrow as she could. Walking fast didn’t stop the earth’s slow roll, but sometimes it felt like it could.” - Francine Pascal

35. “It may be necessary to stand on the outside of one is to see things clearly.” - Peter Høeg

36. “You're my closest friend and you're thousands of miles away.” - Anthony Horowitz

37. “It seemed like all the way to tomorrow and over it to the days beyond.” - J.R.R. Tolkien

38. “The stars up there at night are closer than you think.” - Doug Dillon

39. “I know you better then anyone. You’re practically my son, and I think that it’s the fact that you don’t want to see her leave. You are afraid of change.” He paused; he was right. “You are afraid that she will change.” - Shannon A Thompson

40. “The distance of a voice, is only a short time away from touch.” - Anthony Liccione

41. “Spending time with Savannah made me wonder whether it was possible to defy the norm. I wanted more of her, and no matter what happened between us, I already knew I'd never forget anything about her. As crazy as it sounded, she was becoming part of me, and I was already dreading the fact that we wouldn't be able to spend the day together tomorrow. Or the day after, or the day after that. Maybe, I told myself, we could beat the odds.' - John” - Nicholas Sparks

42. “The further from one another, the nearer one can be.” - August Strindberg

43. “Distance changes utterly when you take the world on foot. A mile becomes a long way, two miles literally considerable, ten miles whopping, fifty miles at the very limits of conception. The world, you realize, is enormous in a way that only you and a small community of fellow hikers know. Planetary scale is your little secret.Life takes on a neat simplicity, too. Time ceases to have any meaning. When it is dark, you go to bed, and when it is light again you get up, and everything in between is just in between. It’s quite wonderful, really.You have no engagements, commitments, obligations, or duties; no special ambitions and only the smallest, least complicated of wants; you exist in a tranquil tedium, serenely beyond the reach of exasperation, “far removed from the seats of strife,” as the early explorer and botanist William Bartram put it. All that is required of you is a willingness to trudge.There is no point in hurrying because you are not actually going anywhere. However far or long you plod, you are always in the same place: in the woods. It’s where you were yesterday, where you will be tomorrow. The woods is one boundless singularity. Every bend in the path presents a prospect indistinguishable from every other, every glimpse into the trees the same tangled mass. For all you know, your route could describe a very large, pointless circle. In a way, it would hardly matter.At times, you become almost certain that you slabbed this hillside three days ago, crossed this stream yesterday, clambered over this fallen tree at least twice today already. But most of the time you don’t think. No point. Instead, you exist in a kind of mobile Zen mode, your brain like a balloon tethered with string, accompanying but not actually part of the body below. Walking for hours and miles becomes as automatic, as unremarkable, as breathing. At the end of the day you don’t think, “Hey, I did sixteen miles today,” any more than you think, “Hey, I took eight-thousand breaths today.” It’s just what you do.” - Bill Bryson

44. “Geography and mileage mean nothing. Separate is a single word that covers all distances that aren't together.” - Rivera Sun

45. “Mattia thought that he and Alice were like that, twin primes, alone and lost, close but not close enough to really touch each other.” - Paolo Giordano

46. “Meskipun raga kita berjarak, namun hati kita selalu bersama. Hatiku dan hatimu tak berjarak.” - Hilda Nurina Sabikah

47. “Hatiku dan hatimu. Tak berjarak.” - Hilda Nurina Sabikah

48. “...Heracles was strangely silent. What is he thinking? / Geryon wondered. / Geryon watched prehistoric rocks move past the car and thought about thoughts. / Even when they were lovers / he had never known what Herakles was thinking. Once in a while he would say, / Penny for your thoughts! / and it always turned out to be some odd thing like a bumper sticker or a dish / he'd eaten in a Chinese restaurant years ago. / What Geryon was thinking Herakles never asked. In the space between them / developed a dangerous cloud.” - Anne Carson

49. “I think about pressing myself against him, but I can't, because all our secrets would keep a space between us.” - Veronica Roth

50. “Take me to 'nowhere' when distance belongs here,there,everywhere.” - Munia Khan

51. “Seasons of the heart. To get through what I must I'm often encased in ice and for months he chips away until he can see my face and after a while, I begin to thaw. As warmth and feeling returns, my emotions continue to build until my personality is set on fire. When he leaves, the fire dwindles until there is but a flicker. Then there is stillness and winter returns.” - Donna Lynn Hope

52. “I don't cry because we've been separated by distance, and for a matter of years. Why? Because for as long as we share the same sky and breathe the same air, we're still together.” - Donna Lynn Hope

53. “Men dream more about coming home than about leaving.” - Paulo Coelho

54. “If you do not have the concept of distance, you may reach an unreachable place!” - Mehmet Murat ildan

55. “I never wanted to be away from the family. Intuitively, I knew how easily distances could harden and become permanent.” - Junot Diaz