[I]n the end this shall be for me sufficient, that a marble stone shall declare that a Queen, having reigned such a time, lived and died a virgin.

[F]rom my years of understanding … I happily chose this kind of life in which I yet live [i.e., unmarried], which I assure you for my own part hath hitherto best contented myself and I...

There are some who want to get married and others who don’t. I have never had an impulse to go to the altar. I am a difficult person to lead.

I’m single because I was born that way.

Marriage is a fine institution, but I’m not ready for an institution.

The desire to get married is a basic and primal instinct in women. It’s followed by another basic and primal instinct: the desire to be single again.

you areas fleetingly beautifulas a mother’s tearsand a father’s pranksa brother’s bachelorhoodand a best friend’s bad mooda bride’s glittering jittersand a handsome stranger’s smile.

In the end, single people either get boring, or they stay divorced.

I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow, than a man swear he loves me.

It’s probably not just by chance that I’m alone. It would be very hard for a man to live with me, unless he’s terribly strong. And if he’s stronger than I, I’m the one who...

LEONATOWell, then, go you into hell?BEATRICENo, but to the gate; and there will the devil meet me, like an old cuckold, with horns on his head, and say ‘Get you to heaven, Beatrice, get you...

(Response to King Erik XIV of Sweden’s proposal of marriage:)”[W]hile we perceive … the zeal and love of your mind towards us is not diminished, yet in part we are grieved that we cannot gratify...

LEONATOWell, niece, I hope to see you one day fitted with a husband.BEATRICENot till God make men of some other metal than earth. Would it not grieve a woman to be overmastered with a pierce...

If I follow the inclination of my nature, it is this: beggar-woman and single, far rather than queen and married.

If [God] send me no husband, for the which blessing I am at him upon my knees every morning and evening …