100 self-love quotes to boost your confidence (2024)

Sometimes we place so much emphasis on our relationships with others that we forget to nurture the most important kind: our relationships with ourselves.

As many of the insightful people on this list have pointed out, it's hard to truly love someone else unless you genuinely love yourself.

Your self-love style can be as unique as you are, and everyone has their own self-love language. Maybe you connect with yourself best through journaling, meditation, or positive self-talk. Boosting your self-esteem can be as simple as looking in the mirror and smiling at yourself, or speaking affirmations out loud.

Sometimes all you need is a simple reminder: you are enough.

It's important to remember that self-love comes from within. Take time to sit with yourself and connect with your inner voice, on bad days and good days alike.

Surprisingly, even the most inspiring changemakers have moments where their self-esteem feels a little shaky. From Beyoncé to Eleanor Roosevelt, several famous figures have shared their tips for cultivating a healthy inner monologue.

For those days when your confidence needs a boost, these quotes about self-love will remind you to cherish yourself.

Best Self-Love Quotes

• “Maybe part of falling in love with someone else is also falling in love with yourself.” — Nicola Yoon, “The Sun Is Also a Star”
• “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 Rodgers
• “You will love again the stranger who was your self.” — Derek Walcott
• “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
• “Freeing yourself was one thing, claiming ownership of that freed self was another.” — Toni Morrison, “Beloved”

• “how you love yourself is / how you teach others / to love you.” — Rupi Kaur, “Milk and Honey”
• “I am sure about myself as a person. I am sure of my talent ... I’m very content. I like the kind of person I am.” — Dolly Parton
• “My wealth is in my knowledge ofself,love, and spirituality.” — Muhammad Ali
• “Had we not loved ourselves at all, we could never have been obliged to love anything. So that self-love is the basis of all love.” — Thomas Traherne
• “Love yourself first and everything else falls into line. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world.” — Lucille Ball

• “When we fulfill our function, which is to truly love ourselves and share love with others, then true happiness sets in.” — Gabrielle Bernstein, “May Cause Miracles”
• “Think thoughts that make you feel good, make choices that make you feel good, and take actions that make you feel good.” — Cheryl Richardson
• “Don’t surrender all your joy for an idea you used to have about yourself that isn’t true anymore.” — Cheryl Strayed, “Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar”
• “If you have the ability to love, love yourself first.” — Charles Bukowski
• “You may cut me with your eyes / You may kill me with your hatefulness / But still, like air, I’ll rise.” — Maya Angelou, “Still I Rise”

• “Love and the self are one, and the discovery of either is the realization of both.” — Leo Buscaglia
• “In your own life it’s important to know how spectacular you are.” — Steve Maraboli, “Unapologetically You: Reflections on Life and the Human Experience”
• “May you always be the one / Who notices the little things / That make the light pour through / And may they always remind you / There is more to life and there is more to you.” — Morgan Harper Nichols
• "I like me. I like my story and all the bumps and bruises. That’s what makes me uniquely me.” — Michelle Obama
• “You and you alone are the only person that can live the life that writes the story that you were meant to tell. And the world needs your story because the world needs your voice.” — Kerry Washington

• “You are built not to shrink down to less, but to blossom into more.” — Oprah Winfrey
• “Everyone of us needs to show how much we care for each other and, in the process, care for ourselves.” — Princess Diana
• “To find a happy ending with someone else, first you have to find it alone.” — Soman Chainani, "The Last Ever After"
• “If you don’t get out there and define yourself, you’ll be quickly and inaccurately defined by others.” — Michelle Obama, "Becoming"
• “Inner beauty should be the most important part of improving one’s self.” — Priscilla Presley

• “Don’t forget to tell yourself positive things daily! You must love yourself internally to glow externally.” — Hannah Bronfman
• “I’m really happy to be me, and I’d like to think people like me more because I’m happy with myself and not because I refuse to conform to anything.” — Adele
• “Your self-worth is determined by you. You don’t have to depend on someone telling you who you are.” — Beyoncé Knowles
• “Friendship with oneself is all important because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
• “Be a master at loving yourself and people will follow.” — Kim Guerra

• “You’re always with yourself, so you might as well enjoy the company.” — Diane von Furstenberg, “The Woman I Wanted to Be”
• “This life is mine alone. So, I have stopped asking people for directions to places they’ve never been.” — Glennon Doyle, “Untamed”
• “I’ve come to a realization that I need to be able to forgive myself for making the wrong choice, trusting the wrong person, or figuratively falling on my face in front of everyone. Step into the daylight and let it go.” — Taylor Swift
• “Nourishing yourself in a way that helps you blossom in the direction you want to go is attainable, and you are worth the effort.” — Deborah Day
• “You deserve a love that’s deeper than the ocean / A love that’s brighter than the sun / A love that’s higher than the mountains / A love that you can only find inside yourself.” — Juansen Dizon, “Confessions of a Wallflower”

• “It is confidence in our bodies, minds and spirits that allows us to keep looking for new adventures, new directions to grow in, and new lessons to learn, which is what life is all about.” — Oprah Winfrey
• “If we stop defining each other by what we are not and start defining ourselves by what we are, we can all be freer.” — Emma Watson
• “You alone are enough, you have nothing to prove to anybody.” — Maya Angelou
• “If you’re not someone who has a natural and effortless love for yourself, it’s hard to let go of your desire to please other people, and that’s really not an ingredient for a happy life.” — Anne Hathaway
• “But the most exciting, challenging and significant relationship of all is the one you have with yourself. And if you can find someone to love the you you love, well, that’s just fabulous.” — Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie Bradshaw, “Sex and the City”

• “We can only love others as much as we love ourselves.” — Brené Brown
• “I believe self-love is a by-product of integrity. Living true to your values—whether you feel like it or not.” — Patricia Moreno
• “Remember who you were before they told you who to be.” —Dulce Ruby
• “And I can’t help lovin’ myself / And I don’t need nobody else / If I was you I’d wanna be me, too.” — Meghan Trainor, “Me Too”
• “Knowing how to be solitary is central to the art of loving. When we can be alone, we can be with others without using them as a means of escape.” ― Bell Hooks, “All About Love: New Visions”

• “Do not let what he wants eclipse what you need. He is very dreamy … But he is not the sun. You are.” — Sandra Oh as Cristina Yang, "Grey’s Anatomy"
• “I say it ain’t bragging if you can back it up.” — Muhammad Ali
• “i found god in myself / and i loved her / i loved her fiercely.” ― Ntozake Shange, “Lady in Red”
• “Treat yourself like someone you love.” ― Glennon Doyle, “Love Warrior”
• “Nothing you resolve to do will make you worthy of love. You are enough right now.” — Unknown

• “look down at your body / whisper / There is no home like you.—Rupi Kaur, “thank you” from "The Sun and Her Flowers"
• “I may be a senior, but so what? I’m still hot.” — Betty White
• “Let me fall if I must fall. The one I will become will catch me.” —Baal Shem Tov
• “Even when muddy / your wings sparkle bright / wonders that heal broken worlds.” ― Aberjhani, “The River of Winged Dreams”
• “Love is inside me. Other people might awaken it or threaten it, but as a capacity, it’s mine.” — Sharon Salzberg

• “I read and walked for miles at night along the beach, writing bad blank verse and searching endlessly for someone wonderful who would step out of the darkness and change my life. It never crossed my mind that that person could be me.” — Anna Quindlen, “Living Out Loud”
• “You carry so much love in your heart. Give some to yourself.” —Unknown
• “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.” — Beyoncé
• “Document the moments you feel most in love with yourself — what you’re wearing, who you’re around, what you’re doing. Recreate and repeat.” — Warsan Shire
• “Self love is not a place we get to but a place we choose.”—Shannon Kaiser, “The Self-Love Experiment”

• “Do your thing and don’t care if they like it.” — Tina Fey, “Bossypants”
• “I knew that was really the only purpose of life: to be our self, live our truth, and be the love that we are.” — Anita Moorjani
• “Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent.”—Eleanor Roosevelt
• “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.” — Kate Winslet
• “There is no beauty that can compare with the beauty of self-knowledge and the tranquility that comes when you accept yourself as you are.” — Sophia Loren, "Women & Beauty"

• “To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.” — Oscar Wilde, “An Ideal Husband”
• “I am too full to be half-loved.” — Ijeoma Umebinyou, “Questions for Ada”
• “As women, we have to start appreciating our own worth and each other’s worth. Seek out strong women to befriend, to align yourself with, to learn from, tocollaborate with, to be inspired by, to support, and enlightened by.” — Madonna
• “I think in life you should work on yourself until the day you die.” — Serena Williams
• “I promise you, little by little, the healing adds up.” — Ella Hicks

• “Plant your garden and water your soul, instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers.” — Jorge Luis Borges, “You Learn”
• “Owning our story and loving ourselves through that process is the bravest thing that we’ll ever do.” — Brené Brown
• “Love is the great miracle cure. Loving ourselves works miracles in our lives.” — Louise Hay
• “Keep watering yourself. You’re growing.” — E. Russell
• “This is not the moment to wilt into the underbrush of your insecurities. You’ve earned the right to grow. You’re going to have to carry the water yourself.” — Cheryl Strayed

• “No other love no matter how genuine it is, can fulfill one’s heart better than unconditional self-love.” — Edmond Mbiaka
• “To fall in love with yourself is the first secret to happiness.” — Robert Morely
• “Keep taking time for yourself until you’re you again.” — Lalah Delia
• “The things that make me different are the things that make me.” — A.A. Milne, “Winnie the Pooh”
• “Daring to set boundaries is about having the courage to love ourselves even when we risk disappointing others.” — Brené Brown

• “You are very powerful, provided you know how powerful you are.” — Yogi Bhajan
• “If you aren’t good at loving yourself, you will have a difficult time loving anyone, since you’ll resent the time and energy you give another person that you aren’t even giving to yourself.” — Barbara De Angelis
• “It took me a long time not to judge myself through someone else’s eyes.” — Sally Field
• “I am my own universe; a galaxy; a solar system. I am the warm-up act, the main event, and the backing singers. And if this is it, if this is all there is—just me and the trees and the sky and the seas—I know now that that’s enough.” — Dolly Alderton, "Everything I Know About Love"
• “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 judgment called it disloyal. Now I see it as self-loving.” — Kim McMillen

• “When you take care of yourself, you’re a better person for others. When you feel good about yourself, you treat others better.” — Solange Knowles
• “You have to believe in yourself when no one else does — that makes you a winner right here.” — Venus Williams
• “Flowers grow back even after the harshest winters. You will, too.” — Jennae Cecelia
• “I’ve learned to embrace all the things I find about myself, if they’re good and even if they’re bad. After all, I fall in love with someone because of their flaws. And I’ve learned to love myself because of my flaws, too.” — Cara Delevigne
• “The same light you see in others is shining within you, too.” — Morgan Harper Nichols

• “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.’” — Oprah Winfrey
• “You have been criticizing yourself for years and it hasn’t worked. Try approving of yourself and see what happens.” — Louise Hay
• “Be bold, be brave enough to be your true self.” — Queen Latifah
• “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, “All About Love: New Visions”
• “I keep telling myself that I’m a human being, an imperfect human being who’s not made to look like a doll, and that who I am as a person is more important than whether at that moment I have a nice figure.” — Emma Watson

• “To say 'I love you' one must know first how to say the 'I.'” — Ayn Rand, "The Fountainhead"
• “I’m not going to apologize for who I am and I’m going to actually love the skin that I’m in. I’m not gonna be striving for some other version of myself.” — Amy Schumer
• “To be nobody-but-yourself — in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else — means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.”— E. E. Cummings
• “Why are you trying so hard to fit in when you were born to stand out?” — Ian Wallace, "What a Girl Wants"
• “At the end of the day, you won’t be happy until you love yourself.”— Lady Gaga