The Best Self-Love Quotes That Will Genuinely Empower You

Reading love quotes is a great way to get inspired, and help you to let someone else know how special they are to you. But what about you? What about self-love? Finding a way to be at peace with yourself can be one of the most difficult things to achieve. 

Finding that self-love means self-acceptance and self-confidence, just as it means learning what makes you happy, what your standards and boundaries are. Self-love means understanding and forgiving yourself, just like you’d do with your loved ones. 

Self-Love Quotes to Develop Your Self-Esteem

Loving yourself will make you happier, build a sense of true self-esteem, and it will make your life easier and more enjoyable. Who knows, it may even help you chase your dreams with more energy and self-confidence than before!

Enjoy self-love quotes below - perhaps they will empower and inspire you!

I must undertake to love myself and to respect myself as though my very life depends upon self-love and self-respect.

MAYA ANGELOU (more Maya Angelou quotes)

How can a man come to know himself? Never by thinking, but by doing. Try to do your duty and you will know at once what you are worth.

JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE

He that respects himself is safe from others; he wears a coat of mail that none can pierce.

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW

They cannot take away our self-respect if we do not give it to them.

MAHATMA GANDHI

To laugh at yourself is to love yourself.

MICKEY MOUSE

Respect yourself and others will respect you.

CONFUCIUS

Love yourself first and everything else falls into line. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world.

LUCILLE BALL

Loving yourself isn’t vanity. It’s sanity.

ANDRE GIDE

Becoming acquainted with yourself is a price well worth paying for the love that will really address your needs.

DAPHNE ROSE KINGMA

To fall in love with yourself is the first secret to happiness.

ROBERT MORLEY

People who love themselves, don’t hurt other people. The more we hate ourselves, the more we want others to suffer.

DAN PEARCE

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.

ANNA TAYLOR

So then, the relationship of self to other is the complete realization that loving yourself is impossible without loving everything defined as other than yourself.

ALAN WATTS

Owning our story and loving ourselves through that process is the bravest thing that we’ll ever do.

BRENÉ BROWN

It’s all about falling in love with yourself and sharing that love with someone who appreciates you, rather than looking for love to compensate for a self-love deficit.

EARTHA KITT

If you don’t love yourself, nobody will. Not only that, you won’t be good at loving anyone else. Loving starts with the self.

WAYNE DYER (more Wayne Dyer quotes)

No other love no matter how genuine it is, can fulfill one’s heart better than unconditional self-love.

EDMOND MBIAKA

If you have the ability to love, love yourself first.

CHARLES BUKOWSKI (more Charles Bukowski quotes)

A person learns how to love himself through the simple acts of loving and being loved by someone else.

HARUKI MURAKAMI

We can’t be so desperate for love that we forget where we can always find it; within.

ALEXANDRA ELLE

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.

BELL HOOKS

Dare to love yourself as if you were a rainbow with gold at both ends.

AUTHOR-POET ABERJHANI

How you love yourself is how you teach others to love you.

RUPI KAUR, MILK AND HONEY

You cannot be lonely if you like the person you're alone with.

WAYNE W. DYER

Love yourself first and everything else falls into line. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world.

LUCILLE BALL

To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.

OSCAR WILDE

When I loved myself enough, I began leaving whatever wasn’t healthy. This meant people, jobs, my own beliefs and habits – anything that kept me small. My judgement called it disloyal. Now I see it as self-loving.

KIM MCMILLEN

Self-love is an ocean and your heart is a vessel. Make it full, and any excess will spill over into the lives of the people you hold dear. But you must come first.

BEAU TAPLIN

Accept yourself, love yourself, and keep moving forward. If you want to fly, you have to give up what weighs you down.

ROY T. BENNETT

Find the love you seek, by first finding the love within yourself. Learn to rest in that place within you that is your true home.

SRI SRI RAVI SHANKAR

People may flatter themselves just as much by thinking that their faults are always present to other people’s minds, as if they believe that the world is always contemplating their individual charms and virtues.

ELIZABETH GASKELL

To accept ourselves as we are means to value our imperfections as much as our perfections.

SANDRA BIERIG

No other love no matter how genuine it is, can fulfill one’s heart better than unconditional self-love.

EDMOND MBIAKA

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.

ALAN COHEN

Self-Worth Quotes to Recognize Your Value

Do you know your worth? When you recognize your worth in you own life, you have a strong sense of your value as a human being and feel that you are worthy of good things - and certainly not feel inferior to others. You understand that your value is not dependent on external influences. High self-worth comes from accepting yourself and loving yourself unconditionally. It means finding your own truth on your own journey. 

If this sounds unfamiliar to you or if you struggle with your self-esteem, know that it’s possible to build up a healthy sense of self-worth with time and practice. High levels of self-esteem go hand in hand with strong self-worth, and we all deserve to live our lives confidently. So, if you’re having trouble recognizing your unique value and need a reminder of how special you are, these inspiring self-worth quotes will inspire you to love yourself harder.

When you recover or discover something that nourishes your soul and brings joy, care enough about yourself to make room for it in your life.

JEAN SHINODA BOLEN

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON

Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.

WILLIAM JAMES

You're always with yourself, so you might as well enjoy the company.

DIANE VON FURSTENBERG

The better you feel about yourself, the less you feel the need to show off.

ROBERT HAND

One's dignity may be assaulted, vandalized and cruelly mocked, but it can never be taken away unless it is surrendered.

MICHAEL J. FOX

I don't want everyone to like me; I should think less of myself if some people did.

HENRY JAMES

Don't ask yourself what the world needs, ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.

HOWARD WASHINGTON THURMAN

My best friend is the one who brings out the best in me.

HENRY FORD (more Henry Ford quotes)

Loving yourself isn’t vanity. It’s sanity.

KATRINA MAYER

Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.

WILLIAM JAMES

I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS

If you do not respect your own wishes, no one else will. You will simply attract people who disrespect you as much as you do.

VIRONIKA TUGALEVA

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON

Love is the great miracle cure. Loving ourselves works miracles in our lives.

LOUISE HAY

The real difficulty is to overcome how you think about yourself.

MAYA ANGELOU

You find peace not by rearranging the circumstances of your life, but by realizing who you are at the deepest level.

ECKHART TOLLE

Growth begins when we start to accept our own weakness.

JEAN VANIER

Your task is not to seek for Love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.

RUMI

When we fulfill our function, which is to truly love ourselves and share love with others, then true happiness sets in.

GABRIELLE BERNSTEIN

Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.

THOMAS JEFFERSON

Did your mom ever tell you, ‘If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything’? She was right–and talking nicely also applies when you’re talking to yourself, even inside your head.

VICTORIA MORAN

Your problem is you’re… too busy holding onto your unworthiness.

RAM DASS

It is never too late to be what you might have been.

GEORGE ELIOT

Self-pity gets you nowhere. One must have the adventurous daring to accept oneself as a bundle of possibilities and undertake the most interesting game in the world making the most of one's best.

HARRY EMERSON FOSDICK

Your self-worth grows when you fight for something you love.

MAXIME LAGACÉ

Be a good person, but don’t waste your time trying to prove it.

PAULO COELHO (more Paulo Coelho quotes)

Asking for what you need is proof of self-worth.

AMANDA GOETZ

Your sense of self-worth comes from you alone — never the opinion of others.

ROBERT GREENE

Don’t waste a second of your time convincing other people you’re worth loving.

ATTICUS

You can’t be successful and loved by everyone. Choose wisely.

MAXIME LAGACÉ

Go all in on yourself.

JACK BUTCHER

You are not what you’ve done. You are what you keep doing.

JACK BUTCHER

Someone who doesn’t care, can’t be hurt.

NAVAL RAVIKANT

As a mountain of rock is unshaken by wind, so also, the wise are unperturbed by blame or by praise.

THE DHAMMAPADA

Those who realize the self are always satisfied. Having found the source of joy and fulfillment, they no longer seek happiness from the external world. Happiness can only be found within the self.

BHAGAVAD GITA

A total acceptance of yourself brings about a total transcendence of yourself.

ADYASHANTI

The most common form of despair is not being who you are.

SØREN KIERKEGAARD

You are not responsible for other people’s opinions, feelings, or perceptions of you. They own that, not you.

SHANE PARRISH

Most people go a majority of their life without even knowing who they are or what they want. Spend time with yourself.

THIBAUT

Being honest with who you are is a superpower. The more honest you are with yourself, the less anyone else can hurt you.

MATTHEW KOBACH

Dig within. There lies the wellspring of good: ever dig, and it will ever flow.

MARCUS AURELIUS

To go wrong in one’s own way is better than to go right in someone else’s.

FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY

We cannot rise higher than our thought of ourselves.  

ORISON SWETT MARDEN

Self-worth sets the standard that life meets.

JEWEL

Our beliefs about what we are and what we can be, precisely determine what we will be.

TONY ROBBINS

Lend yourself to others, but give yourself to yourself.

MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE

Remember, you have been criticizing yourself for years and it hasn’t worked. Try approving of yourself and see what happens.

LOUISE HAY

Don’t ask yourself what the world needs, ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.

HOWARD THURMAN

Until you value yourself, you won’t value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it.

M. SCOTT PECK

The worst loneliness is to not be comfortable with yourself.

MARK TWAIN

Why should we worry about what others think of us, do we have more confidence in their opinions than we do our own?

BRIGHAM YOUNG

When you stop living your life based on what others think of you real life begins. At that moment, you will finally see the door of self-acceptance opened.

SHANNON L. ALDER

It took me a long time not to judge myself through someone else's eyes.

SALLY FIELD

Our self-respect tracks our choices. Every time we act in harmony with our authentic self and our heart, we earn our respect. It is that simple. Every choice matters.

DAN COPPERSMITH

You have to believe in yourself when no one else does – that makes you a winner right here.

VENUS WILLIAMS

It took many years of vomiting up all the filth I’d been taught about myself, and half-believed before I was able to walk on the earth as though I had a right to be here.

JAMES BALDWIN

Your self-worth is determined by you. You don’t have to depend on someone telling you, who you are.

BEYONCE (more Beyonce quotes)

I think the reward for conformity is that everyone likes you except yourself.

RITA MAE BROWN

When you're different, sometimes you don't see the millions of people who accept you for what you are. All you notice is the person who doesn't.

JODI PICOULT

The only person who can pull me down is myself, and I'm not going to let myself pull me down anymore.

C. JOYBELL C.

The most terrifying thing is to accept oneself completely.

C.G. JUNG

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.

KARL LAGERFELD

Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.

CARL GUSTAV JUNG

Love yourself quotes to help you in your self-love journey

Do you love yourself, and are you proud of your own work and inner beauty? Most of us like to think we do, but what does loving yourself really mean? We’ve all heard the age-old saying “love yourself first”, and while it sounds simple in theory, the truth is, practicing self-love can be challenging. 

To love yourself means to fully accept yourself for who you are, which can feel impossible at times because as humans we tend to be our own worst critics. Not to mention, some of us tend to get so caught up loving others that we end up neglecting ourselves in the process.

You are very powerful, provided you know how powerful you are.

YOGI BHAJAN

We are each gifted in a unique and important way. It is our privilege and our adventure to discover our own special light.

MARY DUNBAR

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON

The hardest challenge is to be yourself in a world where everyone is trying to make you be somebody else.

E. E. CUMMINGS

Remember always that you not only have the right to be an individual, you have an obligation to be one.

ELEANOR ROOSEVELT

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON

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.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

The most powerful relationship you will ever have is the relationship with yourself.

STEVE MARABOLI

Most of the shadows of this life are caused by standing in one's own sunshine.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON

Life is too short to waste any amount of time on wondering what other people think about you. In the first place, if they had better things going on in their lives, they wouldn't have the time to sit around and talk about you. What's important to me is not others' opinions of me, but what's important to me is my opinion of myself.

C. JOY BELL C.

Self-love seems so often unrequited.

ANTHONY POWELL

If you spend your time hoping someone will suffer the consequences for what they did to your heart, then you're allowing them to hurt you a second time in your mind.

SHANNON L. ALDER

Strong people have a strong sense of self-worth and self-awareness; they don’t need the approval of others.

ROY T. BENNETT

Never forget that once upon a time, in an unguarded moment, you recognized yourself as a friend.

ELIZABETH GILBERT

Anger, resentment and jealousy doesn't change the heart of others-- it only changes yours.

SHANNON ALDER

Sometimes, I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company? It’s beyond me.

ZORA NEALE HURSTON

We cannot think of being acceptable to others until we have first proven acceptable to ourselves.

MALCOLM X

Sometimes the hardest part of the journey is believing you're worthy of the trip.

GLENN BECK

Self-worth is so vital to your happiness if you don’t feel good about you, it’s hard to feel good about anything else.

SANDY HALE

Your crown has been bought and paid for. Put it on your head and wear it.

DR. MAYA ANGELOU

Self-worth comes from one thing – thinking that you are worthy.

WAYNE W. DYER

To double your net worth, double your self-worth. Because you will never exceed the height of your self-image.

ROBIN SHARMA

You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.

Buddha

Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are.

MARILYN MONROE

Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another stepping stone to greatness.

OPRAH WINFREY (more Oprah quotes)

Self–care is never a selfish act; it is simply good stewardship of the only gift I have, the gift I was put on earth to offer to others.

PARKER PALMER

Low self-esteem is like driving through life with your hand-break on.

MAXWELL MALTZ

Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.

DALE CARNEGIE

It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.

SIR EDMUND HILLARY

Until you value yourself ou won’t value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it.

M. SCOTT PECK

Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are.

MALCOLM S. FORBES

You have been criticizing yourself for years, and it hasn’t worked. Try approving of yourself and see what happens.

LOUISE HAY (more Louise Hay quotes)

If you are insecure, guess what? The rest of the world is too. Do not overestimate the competition and underestimate yourself. You are better than you think.

T. HARV EKER

People who love themselves, don’t hurt other people. The more we hate ourselves, the more we want others to suffer.

DAN PEARCE

Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one’s definition of your life, but define yourself.

HARVEY FIERSTEIN

Beauty begins the moment you decide to be yourself.

COCO CHANEL

Be faithful to that which exists within yourself.

ANDRÉ GIDE

The reward for conformity is that everyone likes you but yourself.

RITA MAE BROWN

There are so many more important things to worry about than how you’re perceived by strangers.

DENNIS LEHANE

One of the greatest regrets in life is being what others would want you to be, rather than being yourself.

SHANNON L. ALDER

Once you embrace your value, talents and strengths, it neutralizes when others think less of you.

ROB LIANO

"There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom."

ANAÏS NIN

"Lighten up on yourself. No one is perfect. Gently accept your humanness."

DEBORAH DAY

"Love yourself unconditionally, just as you love those closest to you despite their faults."

LES BROWN

"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."

FRED ROGERS

"My mother told me to be a lady. And for her, that meant be your own person, be independent."

RUTH BADER GINSBURG

"Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world straight in the face."

HELEN KELLER