I always say I'd rather be miserable by myself than unhappy in a

The wise humorist and storyteller Graham Norton once declared: “I always say I’d rather be miserable by myself than unhappy in a relationship.” Though spoken in the tongue of wit, his words carry the weight of ancient truth. For they teach that to preserve one’s freedom and selfhood, even amid sorrow, is nobler than to be bound in chains of false companionship. Better to walk alone in honesty than to sit in company and drink bitterness from the cup of pretense.

The ancients knew well the peril of unequal bonds. They warned that the heart chained to another without harmony becomes like a bird tethered to stone—it may still possess wings, but it cannot rise. To be miserable by oneself is at least to suffer with dignity, with the chance of renewal, with the hope that solitude will purify and strengthen. But to be unhappy in a relationship is to endure a double prison: the weight of grief and the loss of freedom.

Norton’s words reveal that true companionship must be built not on fear of solitude, but on the abundance of self. The one who dreads being alone is easily trapped in bonds that wound the spirit. But the one who can stand firm in solitude chooses love not out of need, but out of truth. In this lies strength: to walk away from what diminishes the soul, and to embrace solitude as a teacher rather than a curse.

There is heroism in solitude, for it forges resilience. To bear misery alone is to face the self, to learn endurance, to prepare for the dawn when companionship may come in purity rather than compromise. But to endure unhappiness in a false union is to extinguish the flame of spirit, to sacrifice joy upon the altar of fear. Thus Norton teaches not despair, but courage—the courage to prefer truth over illusion, solitude over enslavement.

Let the generations remember: the worth of a relationship is not in its mere existence, but in its power to uplift. Choose bonds that kindle joy and freedom, not those that smother. And if no such bond appears, fear not to walk the road alone, for even misery in solitude leaves the heart intact, ready for renewal, while false ties corrode it beyond repair. This is the wisdom of the ancients, and the legacy of those who dared to live free.