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...

I climb mountains, while you keep sinking in sand.

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

(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...

Falling in love can be likened to someone, falling from a high building. The possible result will be unconsciousness if not death. Take it that, anybody that falls in love is either unconscious or dead.

Never allow yourself to become a choice in any relationship. The moment you do is when you have reduced your loved one’s affections to a daily biological question: Should I take a dump here or...

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

don’t ever think that you’re a single in total freedom,but think of combating the forces of lust.

[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.

Fantasy Is Not Reality, it is unrealistic to expect your future mate to match your fantasies.

[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...

When you are feeling sad and lonely because you are single, remember that there are a lot of people stuck in bad relationships who wish they could be in your shoes.

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.

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.

There were a lot of these middle-aged single types in the neighborhood, shipwrecked by every kind of catastrophe, but she was one of the few who didn’t have children, who lived alone, who was still...

At least as a single woman, I had time to pursue my own interests, read voraciously, and travel when opportunity presented.

You don’t need a significant other to lead a significant life.

You had to go to a different part of town from where I was to get Muddy Waters singles. I had him on singles.

I hoped Claire would have a girl. A nephew would be fun until he got his first erection and then he’d be like the rest of them.

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

I’m single because I was born that way.

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...

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

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...