Welcome to our collection of distance quotes! Distance, whether physical or emotional, holds a unique place in the human experience. It can evoke feelings of longing, separation, and sometimes even liberation. Throughout history, writers, thinkers, and poets have grappled with the concept of distance, weaving its complexities into their works of art and literature. From the pangs of missing a loved one to the vast expanse of space stretching between stars, distance shapes our perceptions, relationships, and aspirations.
In this curated selection, you’ll find a diverse array of quotes that capture the essence of distance in its myriad forms. These quotes offer insights, reflections, and perspectives on what it means to be separated by space, time, or emotion. Whether you’re seeking inspiration, solace, or simply a deeper understanding of the human condition, these words are sure to resonate. So, dive in and explore the profound wisdom that emerges when we confront the distances that define our lives.
The reason ‘Hamilton’ works is because there is no distance between that story that happened 200-some-odd years ago and now, because it looks like America now. It helps create a connection that wouldn’t have been there if it was 20 white guys on stage. Lin-Manuel Miranda
It is easy to be brave from a safe distance. Aesop
No distance of place or lapse of time can lessen the friendship of those who are thoroughly persuaded of each other’s worth. Robert Southey
The squares of the periodic times are to each other as the cubes of the mean distances. Johannes Kepler
Along the borders to Ethiopia and Somalia, anarchy reigns, the police and military have retreated quite some distance. Richard Leakey
I’ve rarely kept my distance from kind of – I don’t know if we can call it politics, but kind of, civic engagement and that kind of thing, except I tended to think, ‘Well, do it yourself before you start telling other people what they should be doing.’ David Byrne
The Nautilus was piercing the water with its sharp spur, after having accomplished nearly ten thousand leagues in three months and a half, a distance greater than the great circle of the earth. Where were we going now, and what was reserved for the future? Jules Verne
Reduce the layers of management. They put distance between the top of an organization and the customers. Donald Rumsfeld
I think it would be hard to go the distance in this business without a sense of humor. Patricia Clarkson
Memories are like stones, time and distance erode them like acid. Ugo Betti
Never speak to an invalid from behind, nor from the door, nor from any distance from him, nor when he is doing anything. The official politeness of servants in these things is so grateful to invalids, that many prefer, without knowing why, having none but servants about them. Florence Nightingale
Laughter is the shortest distance between two people. Yakov Smirnoff
I have somebody I admire and want to keep at a distance. I’ve had the opportunity to meet her a couple of times – it’s Chrissie Hynde from The Pretenders. I just am nuts about her, but I have no interest in meeting her because I just don’t think she could live up to what she’s been to me in my head. Tig Notaro
The second principle of magic: things which have once been in contact with each other continue to act on each other at a distance after the physical contact has been severed. James G. Frazer
Telephone, n. An invention of the devil which abrogates some of the advantages of making a disagreeable person keep his distance. Ambrose Bierce
Intimacy is not a happy medium. It is a way of being in which the tension between distance and closeness is dissolved and a new horizon appears. Intimacy is beyond fear. Henri Nouwen
Atheism is so senseless. When I look at the solar system, I see the earth at the right distance from the sun to receive the proper amounts of heat and light. This did not happen by chance. Isaac Newton
When you run the marathon, you run against the distance, not against the other runners and not against the time. Haile Gebrselassie
Every living being is an engine geared to the wheelwork of the universe. Though seemingly affected only by its immediate surrounding, the sphere of external influence extends to infinite distance. Nikola Tesla
In a sense, each of us is an island. In another sense, however, we are all one. For though islands appear separate, and may even be situated at great distances from one another, they are only extrusions of the same planet, Earth. J. Donald Walters
One minute we can be in a small club, the next minute we can be in a coliseum, and the next minute we can be in a small auditorium. It varies, depending on the promoter, the budget, and the travelling distance. Ben E. King
The places I’ve been, or passed through, or seen at a distance, have had as much an impact on my life as the people I’ve known. Bryan Lee O’Malley
One rule that will work if it is used everywhere, is that when you have a free-kick, the referee puts the mark on the floor to make sure the defenders keep their distance. Cristiano Ronaldo
I want a partner in crime and a Bonnie to my Clyde. I’ve just been so focused on my career. Women don’t like being number two, so I’ve been glad to keep my distance so I could focus on me, get my life together and take care of my mom without disappointing the woman I love. Shemar Moore
If you go back a few hundred years, what we take for granted today would seem like magic – being able to talk to people over long distances, to transmit images, flying, accessing vast amounts of data like an oracle. These are all things that would have been considered magic a few hundred years ago. Elon Musk
I started with paragliding. Paragliding is taking off from mountains with a paraglider, with the possibility to fly cross-country, distance, just with the use of thermals to soar. Also, different aerobatic maneuvers are possible with a paraglider. From there, I started with skydiving. Ueli Gegenschatz
All of us are experts at practicing virtue at a distance. Theodore Hesburgh
Everywhere is within walking distance if you have the time. Steven Wright
Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes. Henry David Thoreau
There is no greater distance than that between a man in prayer and God. Ivan Illich
The divisions of Perspective are 3, as used in drawing; of these, the first includes the diminution in size of opaque objects; the second treats of the diminution and loss of outline in such opaque objects; the third, of the diminution and loss of colour at long distances. Leonardo da Vinci
Sorrows are like thunderclouds, in the distance they look black, over our heads scarcely gray. Jean Paul
The shortest distance between two points is under construction. Leo Aikman
We have an unknown distance yet to run, an unknown river to explore. What falls there are, we know not; what rocks beset the channel, we know not; what walls ride over the river, we know not. Ah, well! we may conjecture many things. John Wesley Powell
Everything has become so easy. It’s great that it’s at your fingertips, but I miss those good old days. And we’re connected, but it can be very alienating. There is this distance between all of us because we’re speaking to each other through cameras and monitors and icons and Emojis. Rami Malek
This weakening is worsened by the widening distance between the governed and their governments. Jacques Delors
Sometimes a person has to go a very long distance out of his way to come back a short distance correctly. Edward Albee
Humans having any kind of sporting chance against hostile alien invaders armed with superior technology – Good luck. If they’re advanced enough to cross the enormous distances of interstellar space, they’re advanced enough to wipe us out without breaking whatever in their physiology passes for a sweat. Nick Sagan
The redwood is the glory of the Coast Range. It extends along the western slope, in a nearly continuous belt about ten miles wide, from beyond the Oregon boundary to the south of Santa Cruz, a distance of nearly four hundred miles, and in massive, sustained grandeur and closeness of growth surpasses all the other timber woods of the world. John Muir
I always need to get away from whatever it is I’ve just finished, to feel a distance from it. Cindy Sherman
Riding a bicycle is the summit of human endeavour – an almost neutral environmental effect coupled with the ability to travel substantial distances without disturbing anybody. The bike is the perfect marriage of technology and human energy. Jeremy Corbyn
If something we think, see, hear, or do distances us from the Holy Ghost, then we should stop thinking, seeing, hearing, or doing that thing. If that which is intended to entertain, for example, alienates us from the Holy Spirit, then certainly that type of entertainment is not for us. David A. Bednar
Running away from something doesn’t do anything except put distance. Rob Halford
Sometimes I feel like crying, tears of happiness, tears of joy, to see the distance we’ve come and the progress we’ve made. John Lewis
The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope. Not admire it from a distance but live right in it, under its roof. Barbara Kingsolver
Fartlek, or speed play, is variable-pace running that emphasizes creativity. During a 30-minute run, choose objects to run to – telephone poles, trees, buildings, other runners, whatever. Make choices that mark off different distances, so your pickups vary in length from 15 to 90 seconds, and modify your pace to match the distance. Don Kardong
The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success. Bruce Feirstein
Distance not only gives nostalgia, but perspective, and maybe objectivity. Robert Morgan
Once the realization is accepted that even between the closest human beings infinite distances continue, a wonderful living side by side can grow, if they succeed in loving the distance between them which makes it possible for each to see the other whole against the sky. Rainer Maria Rilke
For the cause that lacks assistance, the wrong that needs resistance, for the future in the distance, and the good that I can do. George Linnaeus Banks
We should not judge people by their peak of excellence; but by the distance they have traveled from the point where they started. Henry Ward Beecher
I want to be a lawyer, a dancer, an actress, a mother, a wife, a children’s author, a distance runner, a poet, a pianist, a pet store owner, an astronaut, an environmental and humanitarian activist, a psychiatrist, a ballet teacher, and the first woman president. Rachel Corrie
For people who live in the suburbs and must commute long distances to work, their wealth will sink as energy prices rise. Robert Kiyosaki
Somewhere we know that without silence words lose their meaning, that without listening speaking no longer heals, that without distance closeness cannot cure. Henri Nouwen
The distance between number one and number two is always a constant. If you want to improve the organization, you have to improve yourself and the organization gets pulled up with you. That is a big lesson. I cannot just expect the organization to improve if I don’t improve myself and lift the organization, because that distance is a constant. Indra Nooyi
Do more than is required. What is the distance between someone who achieves their goals consistently and those who spend their lives and careers merely following? The extra mile. Gary Ryan Blair
Love knows not distance; it hath no continent; its eyes are for the stars. Gilbert Parker
We can only see a short distance ahead, but we can see plenty there that needs to be done. Alan Turing
Vanity can apply to both insecurity and egotism. So I distance myself, because I feel everything. Taylor Swift
Get into the habit of imagining an alternate scenario. By posing such ‘imagine if’ questions… we can distance ourselves from the frames, cues, anchors and rhetoric that might be affecting us. Noreena Hertz
To the wrongs that need resistance, To the right that needs assistance, To the future in the distance, Give yourselves. Carrie Chapman Catt
I have spent my life judging the distance between American reality and the American dream. Bruce Springsteen
Life is like a landscape. You live in the midst of it but can describe it only from the vantage point of distance. Charles Lindbergh
A short story is the shortest distance between two points; a novel is the scenic route. Robert J. Sawyer
A civilization is a heritage of beliefs, customs, and knowledge slowly accumulated in the course of centuries, elements difficult at times to justify by logic, but justifying themselves as paths when they lead somewhere, since they open up for man his inner distance. Antoine de Saint-Exupery
One sees qualities at a distance and defects at close range. Victor Hugo
Chimpanzees, typically, kiss and embrace after fights. They first make eye contact from a distance to see the mood of the others. Then they approach and kiss and embrace. Frans de Waal
Yes, an individual could be electronically stimulated to fear, anger, or euphoria from a distance. However, the procedure is complicated, not always accurate, and far too tedious and expensive as a method for taking over control of the world. Marilyn Ferguson
We talk about heaven being so far away. It is within speaking distance to those who belong there. Heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people. Dwight L. Moody
I think it’s important for one to take a certain distance from oneself. Vaclav Havel
A thing is mighty big when time and distance cannot shrink it. Zora Neale Hurston
Technology gives us the facilities that lessen the barriers of time and distance – the telegraph and cable, the telephone, radio, and the rest. Emily Greene Balch
Our best selves tell us that ‘there but for the grace of God… ‘ and that, in the end, there is no distance, really, between us and them. It is just us. Our best and noble hope is to imitate the God we believe in. The God who has abundant room in God’s grief and heart for us all. Greg Boyle
Let man live at a distance from God, and the universe remains neutral or hostile to him. But let man believe in God, and immediately all around him the elements, even the irksome, of the inevitable organize themselves into a friendly whole, ordered to the ultimate success of life. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
The man who says he is willing to meet you halfway is usually a poor judge of distance. Laurence J. Peter
The astronomer will believe that the most erratic comet will yet accomplish its journey and revisit our sphere; but we give up those for lost who have not wandered one-half the distance from the centre of light and life. Charles Spurgeon
The big picture doesn’t just come from distance; it also comes from time. Simon Sinek
Laughter gives us distance. It allows us to step back from an event, deal with it and then move on. Bob Newhart
Angels are not complete, they need their counterparts, the dark needs the bright, the hidden needs the open, and vice versa. Sometimes they meet and recognise each other. Sometimes, as with Horatio and me, the pairing occurs over spaces of time and distance. Barry Unsworth
To be consistently effective, you must put a certain distance between yourself and what happens to you on the golf course. This is not indifference, it’s detachment. Sam Snead
New nemeses keep racing fresh, but I also find challenge in going longer, with only the distance as foe. I run my first 50-mile race, journey across the Grand Canyon and back, circumnavigate Mount St. Helens. Don Kardong
Being the composer of ‘Minecraft’ is basically like imagining the distance between earth and moon. C418
Globalisation has obliterated distance, not just physically but also, most dangerously, mentally. It creates the illusion of intimacy when, in fact, the mental distances have changed little. It has concertinaed the world without engendering the necessary respect, recognition and tolerance that must accompany it. Martin Jacques
Idealism increases in direct proportion to one’s distance from the problem. John Galsworthy
Your body’s made to run, to walk, to trek long distances and carry things, work in a forest, and hunt animals. You have to keep it alive to function. Dolph Lundgren
Women have talent and intelligence but, due to social constraints and prejudices, it is still a long distance away from the goal of gender equality. Pratibha Patil
The closer the look one takes at a word, the greater distance from which it looks back. Karl Kraus
Laughter is the closest distance between two people. Victor Borge
Scarce any problem will appear more hard and difficult, than that of determining the distance of the Sun from the Earth very near the truth: but even this… will without much labour be effected. Edmond Halley
I don’t read articles about myself. I try to distance myself from it. Reading about yourself is nice, but in the long run, it doesn’t help. Concentration has to be in the right place. Robert Lewandowski
Upon the whole it was a Glorious day-Our men are in the Spirits-and I am confident we shall give them a total defeat the next Action; which is at no great distance. Anthony Wayne
Tis distance lends enchantment to the view, and robes the mountain in its azure hue. Thomas Campbell
We criticize mothers for closeness. We criticize fathers for distance. How many of us have expected less from our fathers and appreciated what they gave us more? How many of us always let them off the hook? Ellen Goodman
Morality without religion is only a kind of dead reckoning – an endeavor to find our place on a cloudy sea by measuring the distance we have run, but without any observation of the heavenly bodies. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand. Thomas Carlyle
There are many crooked lines and one straight line. Which is the line of truth? Why the straight line? Truth is always the shortest distance between two points. Sun Myung Moon
You have to keep your sanity as well as know how to distance yourself from it while still holding onto the reins tightly. That is a very difficult thing to do, but I’m learning. Diahann Carroll
I can run a long distance very slowly and I do a half marathon every year. Martha Nussbaum
From a building right in front of my windows, I can observe the speed of the sunrises and sunsets. The voices of children playing, laughing, yelling, and crying on the playground crawl up to the eighth floor, where I write. Their voices sound so innocent from a distance. Andrea Hirata
The human voice can never reach the distance that is covered by the still small voice of conscience. Mahatma Gandhi