"It's better to be unhappy alone than unhappy with someone - so far"
About this Quote
As an actress whose public image was engineered into a fantasy of being perpetually wanted, Monroe insisting on the legitimacy of being alone reads like a quiet rebellion. The subtext is about bargaining with loneliness. She’s weighing two kinds of unhappiness: the private ache of being by yourself versus the amplified misery of being trapped in a relationship that makes you feel smaller. “Unhappy with someone” suggests not just heartbreak but surveillance, compromise, and the particular indignity of performing contentment for an audience.
Culturally, it’s a mid-century pressure valve. Women were sold coupledom as destiny, with failure framed as personal deficiency. Monroe flips that script without pretending it’s easy: solitude isn’t romanticized, it’s triage. The line’s wit is defensive, a boundary drawn in pencil rather than ink. “So far” leaves the door open to love while refusing to sacrifice peace to prove you’re lovable. That tension is why it still feels current in an era that prizes self-care but still treats partnership as a social credential.
Quote Details
| Topic | Relationship |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Monroe, Marilyn. (2026, January 17). It's better to be unhappy alone than unhappy with someone - so far. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/its-better-to-be-unhappy-alone-than-unhappy-with-26231/
Chicago Style
Monroe, Marilyn. "It's better to be unhappy alone than unhappy with someone - so far." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/its-better-to-be-unhappy-alone-than-unhappy-with-26231/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"It's better to be unhappy alone than unhappy with someone - so far." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/its-better-to-be-unhappy-alone-than-unhappy-with-26231/. Accessed 16 Feb. 2026.










