live by oneself—live alone:
- For twenty-two years Junker lived by himself, completely alone in rooms designed for a nonexistent wife and children.
live in oneself—(also: live within oneself ) rely on oneself for ideas, beliefs, etc.:
- They show us a man … who lived in himself and for himself. All his opinions were his own, and there is no recorded instance in his long career in which he sought or desired counsel from others.
live to oneself—be a loner; shun the company of other people:
- He shut himself up at the age of forty-five, disgusted, as he said, with his fellow men and determined to live to himself.
See also: live with oneself / live within oneself.