The 18 Most Empowering Quotes About Being Single

If you talk to any of my (amazing, awesome, patient) best friends, they’d likely tell you how much I live and breathe quotes. And not just any quotes (I am a writer, after all), nope, I only like the inspiring, empowering words of wisdom and language that not only get me going, but keep me going when I feel like throwing in the towel. I have a daily quote calendar on my desk, one in my apartment and I hang up my favorites around my mirror, reminding myself to take note of them when I need some motivation. The background of my phone? And about a third of my photos on Instagram? All quotes.

The topic I usually need the most guidance — and fuzzy, warm feelings — in is usually dating. Not because I’m a negative Nancy, but that going on dates can only be exhausting, but also an easy way to bust your self-confidence. After all - how many first dates can a gal go on? Or how many not-actual-relationships relationships can a woman handle? It’s in those desperate moments when I feel like I’m truly going to be alone forever (and should probably freeze my eggs? Or set up a solo retirement plan? Or, or, or?!!) — that I need to be reminded of why I’m still single....

...I’m not willing to settle for less than magic. And more so than romance or butterflies — I want a true partner who challenges, encourages and brings out the best in me. I haven’t met this person yet — but these quotes help me keep on, keepin’ on when I’d rather, well, not:

1. “When I get lonely these days, I think: So BE lonely, Liz. Learn your way around loneliness. Make a map of it. Sit with it, for once in your life. Welcome to the human experience. But never again use another person’s body or emotions as a scratching post for your own unfulfilled yearnings.” -Elizabeth Gilbert

2. “How wrong it is for a woman to expect the man to build the world she wants, rather than to create it herself.” -Anais Nin

3. “It seemed to me that the desire to get married – which, I regret to say, I believe is basic and primal in women – is followed almost immediately by an equally basic and primal urge – which is to be single again.” -Nora Ephron

4. “I celebrate myself, and sing myself.” -Walt Whitman

5. “Yes I’m alone. But I’m alone and free. “-Elsa, Frozen

6. “I don’t need a prince charming to have my own happy ending.” -Katy Perry

7. “My alone feels so good, I’ll only have you if you’re sweeter than my solitude.” -Warsan Shire

8. “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

9. “Being single is getting over the illusion that there is somebody out there to complete you and taking charge of your own life.” -Omkar Phatakc

10. “If you have to ask someone to change, to tell you they love you, to bring wine to dinner, to call you when they land, you can’t afford to be with them.” -Sloane Crosley

11. “You are terrifying, and strange, and beautiful. Something not everyone knows how to love.” -Warsan Shire

12. “I never found a companion that was so companionable as solitude.” -Henry David Thoreau

13. "I regard romantic comedies as a sub-genre of sci-fi, in which the world operates according to different rules than my regular human world.” -Mindy Kaling

14. “I am a lover without a lover. I am lovely and lonely and I belong deeply to myself.” -Warsan Shire

15. "When you spend a few years being who you are, completely unbiased, you can figure out what you actually want." - Taylor swift

16. “Being single means you’re strong enough to wait for what you deserve.” -Niall Horan

17. “Don’t chase these boys. Don’t depend on anybody. Do your thing.” -Nicki Minaj

18. “You do not need to be loved, not at the cost of yourself. The single relationship that is truly central and crucial in a life is the relationship to the self. Of all the people you will know in a lifetime, you are the only one you will never lose.”-Jo Courdert

Images: Fotolia; Giphy