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Anime & Manga
"To seek strength, one must become isolated. Only one person can stand at the pinnacle of victory. To arrive at that point, I have to beat everyone, no matter who they are. I will beat everyone around me. That's the only path that will take me to what I seek: being the strongest."
— Toshiki Kai, Cardfight!! Vanguard
"Nunnally, Rolo, Shirley, the Black Knights... I've lost everything. This is the result which I've been left with. No, it's my just punishment."
— Lelouch, Code Geass
"Would you please refrain from using me to comfort your ego just because everybody in the chatroom but you has friends to eat hotpot with?"
— Namie to Izaya, Durarara!!
"It is unfortunate, but I do not require a second friend. Past and future, my companion will only be one - and there need not be two kingly ones."
— Gilgamesh, Fate/Zero
Comic Books
Passerby: [to Scrooge] Get lost, Mr. Big-Shot-Copper-King!
Scrooge: They were my friends! What did I do?
Rockerduck: You got rich, son. Best get used to it like - [sigh] - I did. You'll have their respect, but no longer their love.
Scrooge: They were my friends! What did I do?
Rockerduck: You got rich, son. Best get used to it like - [sigh] - I did. You'll have their respect, but no longer their love.
— The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, "Chapter 4: The Raider of the Copper Hill"
"Who could have guessed that becoming God would prove to be such a hollow victory?"
— Thanos of Titan
Fan Fiction
"You are the Fire Lord! You have no friends! Those that call themselves such are jackals waiting at your door."
— Ozai, His Fathers Son
, an Avatar: The Last Airbender fanfic
, an Avatar: The Last Airbender fanfic"Aizen was a brilliant man, but so smart and so powerful and so alone— by his own fault, I think, but no one noticed and derailed it— that he killed his ability to relate to others. It... what's the phrase... withered on the vine. It twisted him until he thought his way was the only way and if the world didn't cooperate, he'd just have to rewrite the world from the top. He didn't have cooperation with valued allies, he had subordinates who were disposable trash. He may have started out with a noble goal— who knows, at this point?— but he got so arrogantly twisted up in himself that he thought himself a god and the world his to play with as he willed. People with a lot of power, like me and the shinigami captains... we need allies to relate to so we don't lose touch with reality and humanity, you know? Going it alone because you think you know everything and your way is best... it can mess with your head."
Sothis: The longer I remain in your body, the more I become aware that I am better than you and I begin to wonder… Is this how Goetia sees humanity? Does he spend every second gazing at you and seeing beings that are lesser than him? Because if so, that is more reason to leave your body swiftly and rid myself of this perspective.
Byleth: How so?
Sothis: Because to stand atop everyone and gaze down at everything and find it wanting. To look upon another being and know for a fact that you are superior to them… is tragically lonely in my eyes. As you shall never be able to find yourself with an equal. It is terribly lonely to be the only one atop a mountain.
Byleth: How so?
Sothis: Because to stand atop everyone and gaze down at everything and find it wanting. To look upon another being and know for a fact that you are superior to them… is tragically lonely in my eyes. As you shall never be able to find yourself with an equal. It is terribly lonely to be the only one atop a mountain.
Films — Animation
"Yeah... Puss in Boots works... alone. Was the legend so big... there was no room for anyone else?"
— Puss in Boots, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
"We have it all, and we have nothing. It's just too easy now."
— Megamind, Megamind
Ralph: This is not what I wanted!
Gene: Well, what did you want, Ralph?
Ralph: I don't know, I just... I was just tired of living alone in the garbage.
Gene: Well, now you can live alone in the penthouse.
Gene: Well, what did you want, Ralph?
Ralph: I don't know, I just... I was just tired of living alone in the garbage.
Gene: Well, now you can live alone in the penthouse.
Films — Live-Action
"So you're a man who has everything... and nothing."
— Yinsen to Tony Stark, Iron Man
Henry V: To steer our present course I have been forced to rely upon the counsel of men whose loyalty I question every waking moment. Every waking moment. I need men around me I can trust. I'm here because you're my friend.
John Falstaff: A king has no friends. A king has only followers and foe.
"I'm... so... ronely... so ronely... so ronely and sadry arone."
— Kim Jong-Il, Team America: World Police
"[Text superimposed over a shot of him alone with his computer] Mark Zuckerberg is the youngest billionaire in the world."
"Is this it? That's what it's all about, Manny? Eating, drinking, fucking, sucking, snorting? Then what? You're 50, you got a bag for a belly, you got tits, you need a bra, got hair on 'em. You got a liver, and they got spots on it, and you're eating this fucking shit, and you're looking like these rich fucking mummies in here. Is this what it's all about? This what I work for?"
—Tony Montana, Scarface (1983)
Literature
"Surely you have something else to live for."
He gave her a look that was both incredulous and pitying. She felt a pang of sympathy for Vista, and how she'd reacted when she felt like she was being condescended to.
"Maybe life doesn't offer anything suitably interesting or profound to a man who's been as powerful as Eidolon is.''"
He gave her a look that was both incredulous and pitying. She felt a pang of sympathy for Vista, and how she'd reacted when she felt like she was being condescended to.
"Maybe life doesn't offer anything suitably interesting or profound to a man who's been as powerful as Eidolon is.''"
— Worm
"This- this is the trouble with being on top.
You're all alo- alone when it counts."
You're all alo- alone when it counts."
"Heralds are all lonely, we're different [...] Herald-Mages are one step lonelier than that. Then there's me."
— Vanyel, Magic's Promise
"In your rocking-chair, by your window dreaming, shall you long, alone. In your rocking-chair, by your window, shall you dream such happiness as you may never feel."
"Have you ever thought what it must be like to be a Grand Master; to know there are only some twelve like you in the world; to know that only one or two come up per generation; that the world depends on you; that a thousand mathematicians, logicians, psychologists and physical scientists wait on you?”
Trask shrugged and muttered, “Good Lord, I’d feel king of the world.”
“I don’t think you would,” said the senior analyst impatiently. “They feel kings of nothing."
Trask shrugged and muttered, “Good Lord, I’d feel king of the world.”
“I don’t think you would,” said the senior analyst impatiently. “They feel kings of nothing."
— "Jokester"
Up here in her garden Dany sometimes felt like a god, living atop the highest mountain in the world. Do all gods feel so lonely?
— Daenerys Targaryen, A Storm of Swords
Yerin: My master used to say that no Path is wide enough for two.
Eithan: And that is exactly the problem I wish to solve. I have been looking for people to walk with me every step of the way.
Yerin: Where to?
Eithan: To the end.
Eithan: And that is exactly the problem I wish to solve. I have been looking for people to walk with me every step of the way.
Yerin: Where to?
Eithan: To the end.
— Cradle Series book 2: Soulsmith
As the sound faded away, a fluorescent light covered Gu YuMian's whole sight, and the sound of birds' wings rang in his ear, and he felt the wind.
Like a lantern, a picture appeared before his eyes.
At first, it was the picture Gu YuMian had seen many times.
The Emperor turned his back to the wave of cheers and walked up step by step. There were so many people around him, but he was like a man immersed in the boundless cold deep sea, separated from the whole world.
They said he was 'the most outstanding and violent monarch,' he was 'albino,' and he was 'terrifying.'
Maybe no one would ever love him.
But that didn't matter to him.
"......"
Then, the picture turned into a fat panda in the spotlight.
Loved by many people, working alone and hard day by day, it seemed that everything in life was good and there was nothing to be dissatisfied with.
At the end of the evening, the panda opened his front door and smelled the delicious food from the neighbors. The neighbors were parents who, after picking up the children from school, were happily discussing their plans for their weekend trip.
The panda put out his paw blankly and touched his eye.
No matter how hard he tried, it was hard to fill the small holes in his heart.
"......"
Academy of Sciences, this day was another sleepless night for the young chief.
Because he was a 'genius born once in a century' with a 'rare super brain power,' he lived under the expectation of everyone every day. He couldn't live up to so many expectations of him. But he often felt that those people never looked into his eyes and there was no him.
The young man in the white coat was wearing goggles which reflected the screen's fluorescence, and he looked up at the ceiling.
Suddenly... he found that...
In the laboratory of the Academy of Sciences, the moon was not visible.
Like a lantern, a picture appeared before his eyes.
At first, it was the picture Gu YuMian had seen many times.
The Emperor turned his back to the wave of cheers and walked up step by step. There were so many people around him, but he was like a man immersed in the boundless cold deep sea, separated from the whole world.
They said he was 'the most outstanding and violent monarch,' he was 'albino,' and he was 'terrifying.'
Maybe no one would ever love him.
But that didn't matter to him.
"......"
Then, the picture turned into a fat panda in the spotlight.
Loved by many people, working alone and hard day by day, it seemed that everything in life was good and there was nothing to be dissatisfied with.
At the end of the evening, the panda opened his front door and smelled the delicious food from the neighbors. The neighbors were parents who, after picking up the children from school, were happily discussing their plans for their weekend trip.
The panda put out his paw blankly and touched his eye.
No matter how hard he tried, it was hard to fill the small holes in his heart.
"......"
Academy of Sciences, this day was another sleepless night for the young chief.
Because he was a 'genius born once in a century' with a 'rare super brain power,' he lived under the expectation of everyone every day. He couldn't live up to so many expectations of him. But he often felt that those people never looked into his eyes and there was no him.
The young man in the white coat was wearing goggles which reflected the screen's fluorescence, and he looked up at the ceiling.
Suddenly... he found that...
In the laboratory of the Academy of Sciences, the moon was not visible.
— I'm Using the Interstellar Live Broadcast to Raise Cubs, Chapter 102
‘I trust you’ll go far, Jen-djieh,’ his father had said, ‘but be prepared for much suffering on the way! And you’ll find it very lonely— at the top.’
He had answered confidently: ‘Suffering and loneliness make a man strong, sir!’
He had not understood his father’s sad smile. But now he knew.
He had answered confidently: ‘Suffering and loneliness make a man strong, sir!’
He had not understood his father’s sad smile. But now he knew.
—Judge Dee, "The Chinese Nail Murders"
Live-Action TV
"Vir, there is a terrible truth: As one accumulates power, one loses friends. One only has those who wish to use you, and those you wish to use."
— Londo Mollari, Babylon 5
Wu Zetian: And where are my enemies now?
Li Chunfeng: All of your enemies are dead!
Wu Zetian: Where are my friends?
Li Chunfeng: They're all dead too.
Li Chunfeng: All of your enemies are dead!
Wu Zetian: Where are my friends?
Li Chunfeng: They're all dead too.
— The Empress of China
"It wasn't worth it, was it? I could've told you that."
— Tiberius (as a hallucination) to Claudius, I, Claudius
"Snap out of this. Stop being defined by what other people think of you. Or how they disappoint you. It's lonely at the top, you know that. What's that song about overcoming professional and personal disappointments? When you smile, when you smile, the whole world smiles with you..."
— Rachel's inner monologue, Glee
"You will collect a lot of powers. You will kill many people. You will become strong. The strongest of them all. But in the end, it won't make any difference. We all gather to stop you. You're alone. No one will mourn your death. No one will shed a tear. No one."
— Hiro tells Sylar his final fate, Heroes
"When my father dies, kings will come to his funeral, but when yours does, his friends will come."
Music
Facing twenty thousand of your fans
How could anything be so lonely?
Part of the success that never ends
Still I'm thinking about you only.
How could anything be so lonely?
Part of the success that never ends
Still I'm thinking about you only.
—ABBA, "Super Trouper"
And they say "She's so lucky, she's a star",
But she cries, cries, cries,
In her lonely heart, thinkin':
"If there's nothin' missin' in my life,
Then why do these tears fall at night?"
But she cries, cries, cries,
In her lonely heart, thinkin':
"If there's nothin' missin' in my life,
Then why do these tears fall at night?"
— Britney Spears, "Lucky"
I hear the crowds beneath me
I'm wishing they could reach me
But I'm on top of the world
Up here, I'm dying alone
I'm wishing they could reach me
But I'm on top of the world
Up here, I'm dying alone
Greek Fire, "Top of the World"
"Then it all crashes down
And you break your crown
And you point your finger
But there's no one around
Just want one thing
Just to play the king
But the castle crumbled
And you've left with just a name
Where's your crown?
King nothing"
And you break your crown
And you point your finger
But there's no one around
Just want one thing
Just to play the king
But the castle crumbled
And you've left with just a name
Where's your crown?
King nothing"
"And you could have it all
My empire of dirt"
My empire of dirt"
"Look what you've done... I'm a motherfuckin' starboy."
— The Weeknd, "Starboy"
"Phantom that's all red, inside all white
Like somethin' you ride a sled down, I just want that head
My Brittany got mad, I'm barely her man now
Everybody got the same swag now
Watch the way that I tear it down
Stackin' my bands all the way to the top
All the way 'til my bands fallin' over
Every time that you leave your spot
Your girlfriend call me like, "Come on over!"
I like the way that she treat me
Gon' leave you, won't leave me, I call it that Casanova
She say I'm insane, yeah
I might blow my brain out
Xanny, help the pain, yeah
Please, Xanny, make it go away
I'm committed, not addicted, but it keep control of me
All the pain, now I can't feel it
I swear that it's slowin' me, yeah"
Like somethin' you ride a sled down, I just want that head
My Brittany got mad, I'm barely her man now
Everybody got the same swag now
Watch the way that I tear it down
Stackin' my bands all the way to the top
All the way 'til my bands fallin' over
Every time that you leave your spot
Your girlfriend call me like, "Come on over!"
I like the way that she treat me
Gon' leave you, won't leave me, I call it that Casanova
She say I'm insane, yeah
I might blow my brain out
Xanny, help the pain, yeah
Please, Xanny, make it go away
I'm committed, not addicted, but it keep control of me
All the pain, now I can't feel it
I swear that it's slowin' me, yeah"
— Lil Uzi Vert, "XO TOUR Llif3"
"You gotta keep one eye
Lookin' over your shoulder
But, you know, it's gonna get harder
And harder
And harder
As you get older
And in the end, you'll pack up
Fly down south
Hide your head in the sand
Just another sad, old man
All alone, and dyin' of cancer."
Lookin' over your shoulder
But, you know, it's gonna get harder
And harder
And harder
As you get older
And in the end, you'll pack up
Fly down south
Hide your head in the sand
Just another sad, old man
All alone, and dyin' of cancer."
— Pink Floyd, "Dogs"
"Some people have everything, and other people don't
But everything don't mean a thing if it ain't the thing you want"
But everything don't mean a thing if it ain't the thing you want"
— Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band, "Express Yourself"
I took a plane to my hometown
I brought my pride and my guitar
Well, my friends are all gone but there's manicured lawns
And the people still think I'm a star
I walked around downtown
I met some fans on Lafayette
They said "tell us how to make it, 'cause we're getting real impatient"
So I looked 'em in the eye and said:
You don't wanna be high like me
Never really knowing why like me
You don't ever wanna step off that roller coaster and be all alone
You don't wanna ride the bus like this
Never knowing who to trust like this
You don't wanna be stuck up on that stage singing, stuck up on that stage singing
All that I know are sad songs, sad songs
I brought my pride and my guitar
Well, my friends are all gone but there's manicured lawns
And the people still think I'm a star
I walked around downtown
I met some fans on Lafayette
They said "tell us how to make it, 'cause we're getting real impatient"
So I looked 'em in the eye and said:
You don't wanna be high like me
Never really knowing why like me
You don't ever wanna step off that roller coaster and be all alone
You don't wanna ride the bus like this
Never knowing who to trust like this
You don't wanna be stuck up on that stage singing, stuck up on that stage singing
All that I know are sad songs, sad songs
—Mike Posner, "I Took A Pill In Ibiza"
Years have passed and I keep thinking
What a fool I've been
I look back into the past
and think of way back when
I know that I lost everything
I thought that I could win
Guess I should have
listened to my friends
What a fool I've been
I look back into the past
and think of way back when
I know that I lost everything
I thought that I could win
Guess I should have
listened to my friends
—Mike Curb Congregation, "Burning Bridges"
Mythology and Religion
"For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"
— The Bible, Mark 8:36
Tabletop Games
This is the Circle of Paramountcy, where intruders are tempted with power over others. For the visitor with martial ambition, an army so vast its number is beyond counting awaits upon an endless plain, in fevered anticipation of his commands for conquest. To the politically-minded, this circle appears as a great chamber of debating and governance, from which he can rule entire worlds and command the respect of their populations. In this place of personal aggrandisement, every whim is obeyed, every command fulfilled. Yet to linger within this circle is to eventually succumb to eternal, nagging paranoia; to see contempt beneath every smiling face and hear conspiracy in every obsequious response. Surrounded by the adoring throng, the visitor's own self-doubts become a torturous prison from which there is no escape.
—Warhammer 40,000: Codex - Chaos Daemons (4th ed)
Theatre
"I couldn't be happier! That's right, I couldn't be happier!
Though it is, I admit, the tiniest bit, unlike I anticipated
But I couldn't be happier! Yes, I couldn't be happier!
Well, not simply.
Strange though it seems, getting your dreams, is a little bit complicated
There's a kind of a sort of...cost
There's a couple things that got...lost
There are bridges you crossed you didn't know you crossed until you crossed them!"
Though it is, I admit, the tiniest bit, unlike I anticipated
But I couldn't be happier! Yes, I couldn't be happier!
Well, not simply.
Strange though it seems, getting your dreams, is a little bit complicated
There's a kind of a sort of...cost
There's a couple things that got...lost
There are bridges you crossed you didn't know you crossed until you crossed them!"
— Glinda, "Thank Goodness," Wicked
Video Games
"For years I've been rushing around, taking whatever I fancied, not giving a tinker's curse for those I hurt. Yet here I am... with riches and reputation, feeling no wiser than when I left home. Yet when I turn around, and look at the course I've run... here's not a man or woman that I love left standing beside me."
— Edward Kenway, Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
"In the end, we followed two different roads of our own making. You, a lovely family. Me, a crooked empire. And my road burned."
— Joey Drew to Henry Stein, Bendy and the Ink Machine
"Did you get your end in all of this, Ramza? I... I got this."
— Delita, Final Fantasy Tactics
Alone, victorious. Thus ends his tale.
"Although many hold me in great respect, not a single person has offered me friendship"
Visual Novels
"You are one-of-a-kind - a lone bastion of supremacy. He who stands at the summit stands there alone. No matter what you're thoughts and actions may be, they will belong only to you. Not a soul can relate or share anything with you."
— Karl Krafft, Dies Irae
Sakurako: Do you think he is lonely?
Kageaki: A throne may seat only one, my lady. There is no space beside him for another.
Kageaki: A throne may seat only one, my lady. There is no space beside him for another.
Web Comics
"The Demiurges are strong. Godlike, even... But that's not enough. We make mistakes. We rely on each other. We all still have so much to learn. Once I saw that as a weakness. Now I'm certain it's not. Someone who lives still thinking that... Struggling to do everything themselves... I can't help but think how alone they must be."
— Allison, Kill Six Billion Demons
"That kind of power... it can be overwhelming. Even in the best of circumstances, it could isolate you from everyone else. That's how great your potential is."
— The Founder, to Tessa Quinn, Sleepless Domain
Web Original
Dr. Horrible: Now the nightmare's real, now Dr. Horrible is here, to make you quake with fear, to make the whole world kneel, and I won't feel...
(cut to Billy, in his lab, looking absolutely defeated)
Billy: A thing...
(cut to Billy, in his lab, looking absolutely defeated)
Billy: A thing...
— Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, "Everything You Ever"
"Fine! You wanna be like that? Die then!
The whole world loved you, but you were MY friend
I'm alone now, with nothing but power and time
And no one on Earth who can challenge my mind..."
The whole world loved you, but you were MY friend
I'm alone now, with nothing but power and time
And no one on Earth who can challenge my mind..."
— Bill Gates to Steve Jobs, Epic Rap Battles of History
"I've been blessed with incredible talents and opportunities. I'm constantly surrounded by love and praise, but when you're placed on a pedestal like that for so long, you become separated from the people that put you there in the first place."
— Pyrrha Nikos, RWBY
Attila sat alone on the crest of a hill overlooking the bucolic village he would next pillage, envying the simple lives of its denizens, but comforting himself with the knowledge that they would soon all be murdered.
— Steve Lerner, Northridge, CA, The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest 2015
Cell: Do you have any actual friends? Any relationships at all that aren't about your money or your position?
Satan: ...I have a daughter.
Cell: Oh, that poor orphan.
Satan: ...I have a daughter.
Cell: Oh, that poor orphan.
Western Animation
"There he is! There's our guy! Congrats, Tony! Have fun with your stupid toilet that you get to use all by yourself now. Enjoy using it all by yourself while you sit there and think about how nobody wants to be around you and how you ruined it for yourself cause you're a huge piece of shit. Look at you sitting there, King Shit on his throne of loneliness! Enjoy this toilet with a thousand of me screaming every time you take a shit! All hail His Majesty, the saddest piece of garbage in the entire cosmos! Long live the big bad doo-doo daddy! May his reign last a thousand years!"
— Hologram!Rick delivering an automated speech intended for Tony to Rick himself, Rick and Morty
"But who here, would ever understand, that the Pumpkin King with the skeleton grin, would tire of his crown? If they only understood... he'd give it all up, if he only could... Oh, there's an empty place in my bones, that calls out for something unknown. The fame and praise come year after year, does nothing for, these empty tears..."
— Jack Skellington, The Nightmare Before Christmas
"You can act all tough and destroy the world, but you can't hide what you really are: a lonely girl who desperately wants a friend."
— Piper to Master Cyclonis, Storm Hawks
Listen, I'll kill you if you tell anyone this, but... I thought winning would be... different. Or at least, more... I don't know... fun?
—Catra to Scorpia* , She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, "Boy's Night Out"
Real Life
"To be alone is the fate of all great minds—a fate deplored at times, but still always chosen as the less grievous of two evils."
— Arthur Schopenhauer
"I have now reigned about fifty years in victory or peace, beloved by my subjects, dreaded by my enemies, and respected by my allies. Riches and honors, power and pleasure, have waited on my call, nor does any earthly blessing appear to have been wanting to my felicity. In this situation, I have diligently numbered the days of pure and genuine happiness which have fallen to my lot. They amount to fourteen."
— Caliph Abd-er-Rahman of Andalusia
"It is not uncommon to find in wealthy and powerful patients an extremely low tolerance for frustration, the therapists said... Because so much of ordinary life is built on small failures and frustrations, therapists see among this patient group a great disenchantment. The therapists cited familiar tropes of the new gilded age: the three-year renovation of a country house that becomes "its own infrastructure of entrapment" as one therapist put it; the man so accustomed to travel by private jet and chauffeur that he develops a fear of airports and taxis. "It results in a fear of chaos and vulnerability," Dr. Aidinoff said."
— Eric Konigsberg, "Age of Riches - Challenges of $600-a-Session Patients"
"No matter how rich you become, how famous or powerful, when you die the size of your funeral will still pretty much depend on the weather."
— Michael Pritchard
"Kings do not have friends - only subjects and enemies."
— Proverb
"The '80s were about acquiring — acquiring wealth, power, prestige. I know. I acquired more wealth, power, and prestige than most. But you can acquire all you want and still feel empty. What power wouldn't I trade for a little more time with my family? What price wouldn't I pay for an evening with friends? It took a deadly illness to put me eye to eye with that truth, but it is a truth that the country, caught up in its ruthless ambitions and moral decay, can learn on my dime. I don't know who will lead us through the '90s, but they must be made to speak to this spiritual vacuum at the heart of American society, this tumor of the soul."
— Lee Atwater
"[Wish] I had been born the son of a farmer and become a friar in El Abrojo [Monastery], not the king of Castile."
— Last Words of King John II of Castile
