Going Solo Quotes

“THE SINGLE WOMAN, far from being a creature to be pitied and patronized, is emerging as the newest glamour girl of our times . . . She is engaging because she lives by her wits. She supports herself. She has had to sharpen her personality and mental resources to a glitter in order to survive in a competitive world and the sharpening looks good. Economically, she is a dream. She is not a parasite, a dependent, a scrounger, a sponger or a bum. She is a giver, not a taker, a winner and not a loser.”
― Eric Klinenberg, Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone

“Living alone helps us pursue sacred modern values—individual freedom, personal control, and self-realization—whose significance endures from adolescence to our final days. It allows us to do what we want, when we want, on our own terms. It liberates us from the constraints of a domestic partner’s needs and demands, and permits us to focus on ourselves. Today, in our age of digital media and ever expanding social networks, living alone can offer even greater benefits: the time and space for restorative solitude. This means that living alone helps us discover who we are, as well as what gives us meaning and purpose.”
― Eric Klinenberg, Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone

“in the end, a source of deep meaning and security, but because it allows us the freedom to cultivate our selves, develop original ideas, and make a productive return to the world.”
― Eric Klinenberg, Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone

“Do you know why so many of us live alone?” a Swedish statistician I interview in the charming Old Town district asks me. He quickly answers his own question: “Because we can.”
― Eric Klinenberg, Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone

“Schumpeter may well have seen singles as rational. but in a survey of Americans conducted in 1957, more than half the respondents said that unmarried people were "sick", "immoral", or "neurotic," while about a third viewed them "neutrally".”
― Eric Klinenberg, Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone

“The four countries with the highest rates of living alone are Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Denmark, where roughly 40 to 45 percent of all households have just one person. By investing in each other’s social welfare and affirming their”
― Eric Klinenberg, Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone

“Today, more than 50 percent of American adults are single, and 31 million—roughly one out of every seven adults—live alone.”
― Eric Klinenberg, Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone