120 Empowering Self-Love Quotes
What’s the most important relationship in your life? You might answer with a partner, a family member, or a friend — but the real answer is that the most important relationship you will ever have is with yourself. After all, there is nobody you’ll spend more time with! Too many people neglect their own self-love, feeling like they aren’t deserving of it or that it’s bragging to say you love yourself. We’re here to tell you that’s totally not true! You are the most deserving of your own love, simply by being you. Go ahead and embrace it!
If you struggle with doubt, anxiety, shame, or anything else, that’s okay. Self-love can be a journey, but the best time to start is now. Accepting your flaws and recognizing your strengths can transform your life. These self-love quotes are perfect both for when you’re already feeling yourself or for when you need a little reminder to keep your head high. Pair them with a self-love book and some self-care ideas to really work on embracing yourself. Over time, you’ll see that you feel stronger, more confident, and overall happier — which is what you deserve!
E. Russell
"Keep watering yourself. You’re growing."
André Gide
"Be faithful to that which exists within yourself."
Beyoncé
"It is so liberating to really know what I want, what truly makes me happy, what I will not tolerate. I have learned that it is no one else’s job to take care of me but me."
bell hooks
“One of the best guides to how to be self-loving is to give ourselves the love we are often dreaming about receiving from others.”
Brené Brown
"Daring to set boundaries is about having the courage to love ourselves even when we risk disappointing others."
E. E. Cummings
“The hardest challenge is to be yourself in a world where everyone is trying to make you be somebody else.”
Chelsie Diane
"Your only job is to be your truest self."
M. Scott Peck
“Until you value yourself, you won’t value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it.”
Cheryl Richardson
"Think thoughts that make you feel good, make choices that make you feel good, and take actions that make you feel good."
Mary Dunbar
“We are each gifted in a unique and important way. It is our privilege and our adventure to discover our own special light.”
Edmond Mbiaka
"No other love, no matter how genuine it is, can fulfill one’s heart better than unconditional self-love."
Rune Lazuli
“Be the love you never received.”
Fred Rodgers
"If only you could sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to people you may never even dream of. There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person."
Rupi Kaur
“How you love yourself is how you teach others to love you.”
Kate Winslet
"Nobody is perfect. I just don’t believe in perfection. But I do believe in saying this is who I am and look at me not being perfect! I’m proud of that."
Sanhita Baruah
“Even when it seems that there is no one else, always remember there’s one person who never ceased to love you – yourself.”
Kim Guerra
"Be a master at loving yourself and people will follow."
Abraham Lincoln
“I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live up to what light I have.”
Louise Hay
"Until you love yourself, you will never know who you really are and you won’t know what you’re really capable of."
Alan Cohen
“To love yourself right now, just as you are, is to give yourself heaven. Don’t wait until you die. If you wait, you die now. If you love, you live now.”
Lucille Ball
"Love yourself first, and everything else falls into line."
Thich Nhat Hanh
“To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself.”
Michelle Obama
"I like me. I like my story and all the bumps and bruises. That’s what makes me uniquely me."
Benjamin Spock
“Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do.”
Maya Angelou, “Still I Rise”
"You may cut me with your eyes / You may kill me with your hatefulness / But still, like air, I’ll rise."
Charles Bukowski
“If you have the ability to love, love yourself first.”
Morgan Harper Nichols
"The same light you see in others is shining within you, too."
Charlie Chaplin
“As I began to love myself, I found that anguish and emotional suffering were only warning signs that I was living against my own truth.”
Muhammad Ali
"My wealth is in my knowledge of self, love, and spirituality."
Christian Nestell Bovee
“Our first and last love is self-love.”
Oprah Winfrey
"You are built not to shrink down to less, but to blossom into more."
Criss Jami
“You can receive all the compliments in the world, but that won’t do a thing unless you believe it yourself.”
Patricia Moreno
"I believe self-love is a by-product of integrity. Living true to your values — whether you feel like it or not."
Debasish Mridha
“If you ever want to love someone, love yourself unconditionally first.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."
Diane Von Furstenberg
“You’re always with yourself, so you might as well enjoy the company.”
RuPaul
"If you can't love yourself, how in the hell are you gonna love somebody else?"
Dominic Riccitello
“You have to grow, you have to be, you have to love yourself unconditionally.”
Wayne Dyer
"Look into a mirror, make eye contact with yourself, and say ‘I love me’ as many times as possible during the day."
Edmond Mbiaka
“The absence of self-love can never be replaced with the presence of people’s love for you.”
Ellen Sue Stern
“Believing in our hearts that who we are is enough is the key to a more satisfying and balanced life.”
George Eliot
“It is never too late to be what you might have been.”
Hindu Proverb
“There is nothing noble about being superior to some other man. The true nobility is in being superior to your previous self.”
Ian Wallace
“Why are you trying so hard to fit in when you were born to stand out?”
Justin Kan
"All people deserve your kindness, but none more so than you.”
Katrina Mayer
“Loving yourself isn’t vanity; it’s sanity.”
Louise L. Hay
“Love is the great miracle cure. Loving ourselves works miracles in our lives.”
May West
“I don’t like myself. I’m crazy about myself.”
Michelle Obama
“Just do what works for you, because there will always be somebody who thinks differently.”
Nikki Rowe
“Don’t let hollow heroes distract you from saving yourself.”
Pierre Corneille
“Self-love is the source of all our other loves.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Most of the shadows of this life are caused by standing in one’s own sunshine.”
Rena Rose
“Love yourself so much that when someone treats you wrong, you recognize it.”
Robert Morely
“To fall in love with yourself is the first secret to happiness.”
Roy Bennet
“Accept yourself, love yourself, and keep moving forward.”
Sandbar Khan
"When admiring other people’s gardens, don’t forget to tend to your own flowers."
Sandra Bierig
“To accept ourselves as we are means to value our imperfections as much as our perfections.”
Sanhita Baruah
“Even when it seems that there is no one else, always remember there’s one person who never ceased to love you – yourself.”
Shannon L. Alder
“One of the greatest regrets in life is being what others would want you to be, rather than being yourself.”
Srividya Srinivasan
“Be very very very gentle with yourself. The world is very very hard on you.”
Suzy Kassem
“You were born an original work of art. Stay original always. Originals cost more than imitations.”
Teresa Collins
“You can never meet your potential until you truly learn to love yourself.”
Thaddeus Golas
“Whatever you are doing, love yourself for doing it. Whatever you are feeling, love yourself for feeling it.”
Unknown
“You must love yourself before you love another. By accepting yourself and fully being what you are, your simple presence can make others happy.”
Vanessa Hudgens
“You have to be able to love yourself because that’s when things fall into place.”
Veronica A. Shoffstall
“Plant your own garden and decorate your own soul, instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers.”
Walt Whitman
“I celebrate myself and sing myself.”
Yogi Bahaman
“You are very powerful, provided you know how powerful you are.”
Louise Hay
“I love myself for I am a beloved child of the universe, and the universe lovingly takes care of me now.”
Andrea Dykstra
“In order to love who you are, you cannot hate the experiences that shaped you.”
Anna Taylor
“Love yourself enough to set boundaries. Your time and energy are precious. You get to choose how you use it. You teach people how to treat you by deciding what you will and won’t accept.”
Ashley Graham
“As hard as it is, owning who you are and knowing what you want is the only sure path to affirmation... I want women to know they can get out of any situation if they return to their core source of strength: themselves.”
Beyoncé
“If there’s one thing I’m willing to bet on, it’s myself.”
Buddha
“You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.”
Coco Chanel
“Beauty begins the moment you decide to be yourself.”
Diane Guerrero
"Love yourself no matter who you are or where you come from."
Eckhart Tolle
“You find peace not by rearranging the circumstances of your life, but by realizing who you are at the deepest level.”
Eleanor Roosevelt
“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”
Eleanor Roosevelt
“Friendship with oneself is all important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world.”
Ellen DeGeneres
“Find out who you are and be that person. That’s what your soul was put on this Earth to be. Find that truth, live that truth, and everything else will come.”
Gary Zukav
“Scarcity of self-value cannot be remedied by money, recognition, affection, attention or influence.”
Glennon Doyle
“This life is mine alone. So, I have stopped asking people for directions to places they’ve never been."
Hannah Bronfman
"Don't forget to tell yourself positive things daily! You must love yourself internally to glow externally."
Haruki Murakami
“A person learns how to love himself through the simple acts of loving and being loved by someone else.”
Iyanla Vanzant
“Comparison is an act of violence against the self.”
Jennae Cecelia
“Flowers grow back even after the harshest winters. You will, too.”
Jennifer Lopez
You've got to love yourself first. You've got to be okay on your own before you can be okay with somebody else."
Karl G. Maeser
“Be yourself, but always your better self.”
Karl Lagerfeld
“Don’t sacrifice yourself too much, because if you sacrifice too much there’s nothing else you can give, and nobody will care for you.”
Lalah Delia
“Keep taking time for yourself until you’re you again.”
Les Brown
“Love yourself unconditionally, just as you love those closest to you despite their faults.”
Lucille Ball
“Love yourself first and everything else falls into line. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world.”
Madonna
“I am my own experiment. I am my own work of art.”
Marcus Garvey
“If you have no confidence in self, you are twice defeated in the race of life.”
Mark Twain
“Never allow someone to be your priority while allowing yourself to be their option.”
Martha Beck
“To know what that true self is without social pressure is to know your true nature.”
Misty Copeland
"All you can do is be your best self. I've always felt that I had to be that much more aware of how I present myself. I'm representing more than just me. I think every person should think that way."
Oprah Winfrey
“I was once afraid of people saying, ‘Who does she think she is?’ Now I have the courage to stand and say, ‘This is who I am.'”
Oscar Wilde
“To love oneself is the beginning of a life-long romance.”
Princess Diana
“Everyone of us needs to show how much we care for each other and, in the process, care for ourselves.”
Queen Latifah
"Be bold, be brave enough to be your true self."
r.h. Sin
“Make peace with your broken pieces.”
Rupi Kaur
“You must want to spend the rest of your life with yourself first.”
Tyra Banks
“Self-love has very little to do with how you feel about your outer self. It's about accepting all of yourself.”
Unknown
“You are enough. A thousand times enough. Self-love has very little to do with how you feel about your outer self. It's about accepting all of yourself.”—Tyra Banks
Winnie the Pooh, A.A. Milne
“The things that make me different are the things that make me.”
Yoko Ono
“You change the world by being yourself.”
Zoë Kravitz
"Beauty is when you can appreciate yourself. When you love yourself, that's when you're most beautiful."
Brené Brown
“Owning our story and loving ourselves through that process is the bravest thing that we’ll ever do.”
Goldie Hawn
"To me, it's that incredible sense of belonging and peace within your own self and heart that really is joy."
Gisele Bündchen
"If you are happy, you can give happiness. If you don't love yourself and if you are unhappy with yourself, you can't give anything else but that."
Kristin Chenoweth
"If you can learn to love yourself and all the flaws, you can love other people so much better. And that makes you so happy."
Marsai Martin
“You don't have to change who you are for anyone: if you are your regular, authentic, confident self, then you can push to do whatever you want.”
Maya Angelou
“You alone are enough, you have nothing to prove to anybody.”
Phylicia Rashad
“Loving oneself isn't hard when you understand who and what 'yourself' is. It has nothing to do with the shape of your face, the size of your eyes, the length of your hair or the quality of your clothes. It's so beyond all of those things and it's what gives life to everything about you. Your own self is such a treasure.”
Priscilla Presley
“Inner beauty should be the most important part of improving one's self.”
Rumi
“You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop.”
Sylvester McNutt
“Fall in love with taking care of yourself. Fall in love with the path of deep healing. Fall in love with becoming the best version of yourself but with patience, with compassion, and respect to your own journey.”
Katie Reed
"Self care is giving the world the best you instead of what's left of you."
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