The single life is severely underrated. In addition to doing whatever you want, whenever you damn please, being single -- and no longer having to devote mental energy to a relationship -- frees you up to explore what really makes you happy in life.
To remind you that you don't need someone by your side to be perfectly content, we've rounded up 12 of our favorite quotes on solitude and the single life below.
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Before You Go
Susan Sarandon
AP
"[Single life] life been a lot of different things,” Susan Sarandon said. “It's traumatic and exhilarating. The one thing that's been really clear to me is that you have to think of your own life and your relationship and everything as a living organism. It's constantly moving, changing, growing."
Stevie Nicks
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"People say to you, ‘Well, what do you mean you don’t have a boyfriend? You don’t want to have one? You don’t want to be married?," Stevie Nicks said. "And you’re like, ‘Well, no, I don’t, actually. I’m fine.’ And they find a lot of reasons why you’re not fine. But it just seems to be coming back. Being able to take care of myself is something that my mom really instilled in me. I can remember her always saying, ‘If nothing else, I will teach you to be independent.’
Meghan McCain
AP
"I can do whatever the hell I want all the time. I have no one to check in with," Meghan McCain said. "When you're in a serious relationship, you kind of have to check in before you go out with your friends or do whatever. I think I'm a bit of a commitment-phobe. Or maybe it's just that I haven't met the right guy. Dating's okay, but guys can be weird. They think if they Google you and talk about stuff you've said, they get to make out with you at the end of the first date."
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Diane Keaton
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"I remember when I was young I honestly believed in some ridiculous way that you would find someone who would be the person you lived with until you died," Diane Keaton said. "I don't think that because I'm not married it's made my life any less. That old maid myth is garbage."
Elisabeth Moss
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"It's fun to go out at night and not know what's going to happen," Elisabeth Moss said after her 2010 divorce. "I'm addicted and obsessed with my freedom in that sense. I'm having fun!"
Nora Ephron
AP
"It seemed to me that the desire to get married – which, I regret to say, I believe is fundamental and primal in women – is followed almost immediately by an equally fundamental and primal urge, which is to be single again," Nora Ephron wrote.
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Julie Delpy
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"Too many women throw themselves into romance because they’re afraid of being single, then start making compromises and losing their identity. I won’t do that," Julie Delpy said.
Taylor Swift
AP
"I'm perpetually single," Taylor Swift said. "Being alone is not the same as being lonely. I like to do things that glorify being alone. I buy a candle that smells pretty, turn down the lights, and make a playlist of low-key songs. If you don't act like you've been hit by the plague when you're alone on a Friday night, and just see it as a chance to have fun by yourself, it's not a bad day."
Sophia Bush
AP
"Being on my own has been amazing," Sophia Bush said. "I don't know if it's coming into my thirties or what it is, but I'm such a sucker for love and I believe in it and I always want it to win. By nature, I think as women we are nurturers, we're caretakers, and me in particular. . . I want to take care of everybody else. And to have spent so long now just taking care of myself and my girlfriends and enjoying that, it's so good. I think it's so important."
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Hayden Panettiere
AP
"Right now, I'm just enjoying having fun," Hayden Panettiere said when she was single. "It's when you're not looking for anything that something winds up coming along. It's about learning how to be just with yourself and that you don't need to be in a relationship. You don't need anyone around to fulfill you."