Do you want to improve your self-confidence? No matter if you sometimes feel insecure or want to build higher levels of faith in yourself, the following self-esteem quotes will help you in your journey towards more assertiveness. Also, for even more confidence-boosting thoughts, have a look at our selection of quotes that will strengthen your courage.
The way you see yourself can dramatically impact your entire life. If you’re a naturally confident and courageous individual, you will be more likely to seize new and exciting opportunities. Similarly, if you have a high level of faith in yourself, you’ll happily accept new challenges that help you to grow as an individual.
“You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”
Carter Crocker
In many regards, self-esteem can be a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you’re self-confident, chances are high that you dive in headfirst into new adventures. These exciting challenges are quite likely to further increase your courage and self-assurance. However, people who struggle with confidence issues interpret setbacks and problems as further proof for their inadequacy.
If you need a quick confidence boost, have a look at these powerful self-esteem quotes.
This is exactly the reason why cultivating self-esteem and confidence can be exceptionally tough. On the one hand, it takes courage to challenge yourself and to expand your horizon. On the other hand, it takes exactly these positive experiences and a sense of achievement to grow your self-esteem. We have created the following list of self-esteem quotes to help you in breaking old habits and growing your self-trust.
Improving your confidence is a cause worth fighting for. Not only will you be more resilient during challenging times but you will also be able to bounce back far more quickly from failures and drawbacks.
111 Self-Esteem Quotes to Boost Your Confidence
No individual alive today was born a self-confident person. Quite the contrary, self-esteem is developed over time and by the aid of affirmative experiences. This means there’s a lot you can do to enhance your self-respect and your confidence. The following selection of powerful self-esteem quotes will help you to take another step towards becoming more courageous.
What makes the following thought so valuable and effective is that they were written by individuals who themselves struggled with self-esteem issues. Thanks to their curiosity, these people have found effective ways to transform themselves into more confident individuals.
Enjoy reading
Here’s our list of powerful self-esteem quotes
1.
“Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.”
Steve Jobs
2.
“Look well into thyself; there is a source of strength which will always spring up if thou wilt always look.”
Marcus Aurelius
3.
“I am an American; free born and free bred, where I acknowledge no man as my superior, except for his own worth, or as my inferior, except for his own demerit.”
Theodore Roosevelt
4.
“Noble and great. Courageous and determined. Faithful and fearless. That is who you are and who you have always been. And understanding it can change your life, because this knowledge carries a confidence that cannot be duplicated any other way.”
Sheri Dew
5.
“Self trust is the essence of heroism.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
6.
“Believe you can and you’re halfway there.”
Theodore Roosevelt
7.
“When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare or compete, everyone will respect you.”
Lao Tzu
8.
“I had the chance to make every possible mistake and figure out a way to recover from it. Once you realize there is life after mistakes, you gain a self-confidence that never goes away.”
Bob Schieffer
9.
“Self-esteem is not a value that, once achieved, is maintained automatically thereafter; like every other human value, including life itself, it can be maintained only by action.”
Ayn Rand
10.
“Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experience that reveals the human spirit”
E.E. Cummings
11.
“The key to life is accepting challenges. Once someone stops doing this, he’s dead.”
Bette Davis
12.
“Fear? What has a man to do with fear? Chance rules our lives, and the future is all unknown. Best live as we may, from day to day.”
Sophocles
13.
“There’s a lot of talk these days about giving children self-esteem. It’s not something you can give; it’s something they have to build.”
Randy Pausch
14.
“You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection”
Sharon Salzberg
15.
“Self-confidence is not the same thing as ego. This is not to say that the two don’t (frequently) dance hand in hand down the street, pushing over old ladies in crosswalks and kicking baby kittens. But they are definitely not the same entity. Ego is thinking you have all the answers. Self-confidence is knowing you don’t have the answers, but being pretty sure that you will be able to find them.”
Maggie Stiefvater
Do you want more self-esteem quotes like this? Read on…
16.
“People who repeatedly attack your confidence and self-esteem are quite aware of your potential, even if you are not.”
Wayne Gerard Trotman
17.
“The higher our self-esteem, the stronger the drive to express ourselves, reflecting the sense of richness within.”
Nathaniel Branden
18.
“Self-esteem comes from being able to define the world in your own terms and refusing to abide by the judgments of others.”
Oprah Winfrey
19.
“Most humans […] have lost their dreams, their ambitions, their desire for a better life. They have surrendered their fight for self-esteem and they have compromised their great potential. They have settled for a life of mediocrity, days of despair and nights of tears. They are no more than living deaths confined to cemeteries of their choice. Yet they need not remain in that state. They can be resurrected from their sorry condition. They can each perform the greatest miracle in the world. They can each come back from the dead…”
Og Mandino
20.
“It is a mistake to look at someone who is self-assured and say, “It’s easy for her to be self-assertive, she has good self-esteem.” One of the ways we build self-esteem is by being self-assertive when it is not easy to do so. There are always times when self-assertiveness calls on our courage.”
Nathaniel Branden
21.
“Respect yourself and others will respect you.”
Confucius
22.
“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.”
Charlotte Brontë
23.
“We are worthwhile because we have successes. And the more we allow our accomplishments — the results of our actions — to become the criteria of our self-esteem, the more we are going to walk on our mental and spiritual toes, never sure if we will be able to live up to the expectations which we created by our last successes. In many people’s lives, there is a nearly diabolic chain in which their anxieties grow according to their successes. This dark power has driven many of the greatest artists into self-destruction.”
Henri J.M. Nouwen
24.
“The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.”
Coco Chanel
25.
“As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
26.
“Throughout the world there is an awakening to the fact that, just as a human being cannot hope to realize his or her potential without healthy self-esteem.”
Nathaniel Branden
27.
“Genuine self-esteem – please understand this – genuine self-esteem is not competitive or comparative. Genuine self-esteem isn’t expressed by self-glorification at the expense of others, or by trying to make yourself superior to everyone else, or diminishing others in order to elevate yourself. Arrogance, boastfulness, the overestimation of your abilities, reflect low self-esteem, even though we’re often encouraged to believe the opposite. In human beings, joy in the simple fact of existence is a core meaning of healthy self-esteem. Thus understood, how can you possibly have too much of it?”
Nathaniel Branden
28.
“As long as you look for someone else to validate who you are by seeking their approval, you are setting yourself up for disaster. You have to be whole and complete in yourself. No one can give you that. You have to know who you are – what others say is irrelevant.”
Nic Sheff
29.
“Self-respect is the root of discipline: The sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself.”
Abraham Joshua Heschel
30.
“Accepting personal responsibility for your life frees you from outside influences – increases your self-esteem – boosts confidence in your ability to decisions – and ultimately leads to achieving success in life.”
Roy T. Bennett
Self-esteem quotes like this help you to boost your confidence
31.
“Self-esteem, the basic conviction that one is competent to live, can be maintained only so long as one is engaged in a process of growth, only so long as one is committed to the task of increasing one’s efficacy. In living entities, nature does not permit stillness: when one ceases to grow, one proceeds to disintegrate – in the mental no less than in the physical.”
Ayn Rand
32.
“Once you embrace your value, talents and strengths, it neutralizes when others think less of you.”
Rob Liano
33.
“Self-control is the chief element in self-respect, and self-respect is the chief element in courage.”
Thucydides
34.
“Self-esteem is: 1. confidence in our ability to think, confidence in our ability to cope with the basic challenges of life; and 2. confidence in our right to be successful and happy, the feeling of being worthy, deserving, entitled to assert our needs and wants, achieve our values, and enjoy the fruits of our efforts.”
Nathaniel Branden
35.
“Self-esteem isn’t everything; it’s just that there’s nothing without it.”
Gloria Steinem
36.
“A mind that trusts itself is light on its feet.”
Nathaniel Branden
37.
“Keeping busy and making optimism a way of life can restore your faith in yourself.”
Lucille Ball
38.
“Within you is a fountain of wisdom. And you sell yourself short every time you allow some authority to define your limitations and cage your potential. Even if that authority lives in your head.”
Vironika Tugaleva
39.
“When we have unconflicted self-esteem, joy is our motor, not fear. It is happiness that we wish to experience, not suffering that we wish to avoid. Our purpose is self-expression, not self-avoidance or self-justification. Our motive is not to “prove” our worth but to live our possibilities.”
Nathaniel Branden
40.
“When you don’t have self-esteem you will hesitate before you do anything in your life. You will hesitate to go for the job you really wanna go for, you will hesitate to ask for a raise. You will hesitate to vote, you will hesitate to dream. For us to have self-esteem is truly an act of revolution and our revolution is long overdue.”
Margaret Cho
These self-esteem quotes are spot on
41.
“In the eyes of the ego, self-esteem and humility are contradictory. In truth, they are one and the same.”
Eckhart Tolle
42.
“The lower our self-esteem, the more urgent the need to “prove” ourselves—or to forget ourselves by living mechanically and unconsciously.”
Nathaniel Branden
43.
“There is no doubt that in exchanging a self-centered for a selfless life we gain enormously in self-esteem. The vanity of the selfless, even those who practice utmost humility, is boundless.”
Eric Hoffer
44.
“The man who does not value himself, cannot value anything or anyone.”
Ayn Rand
45.
“I do not believe in taking the right decision, I take a decision and make it right.”
Muhammad Ali Jinnah
46.
“In essence, you are neither inferior nor superior to anyone. True self-esteem and true humility arise out of that realization.”
Eckhart Tolle
47.
“They are called, “SELF-worth” and “SELF-esteem” for a reason… we can’t let others decide what we are worth, that is so dangerous! Empower yourself!”
Jaeda DeWalt
48.
“The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.”
Sylvia Plath
49.
“As a psychotherapist, I see that nothing does as much for an individual’s self-esteem as becoming aware of and accepting disowned parts of the self. The first steps of healing and growth are awareness and acceptance—consciousness and integration. They are the fountainhead of personal development.”
Nathaniel Branden
50.
“In the darkest hours we must believe in ourselves.”
Terry Goodkind
51.
“Be that strong girl that everyone knew would make it through the worst, be that fearless girl, the one who would dare to do anything, be that girl who never backed down.”
Taylor Swift
52.
“I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.”
Edward Everett Hale
53.
“Respect for self is the beginning of cultivating virtue in men and women.”
Gordon B. Hinckley
54.
“Walk tall, or baby don’t walk at all.”
Bruce Springsteen
55.
“For one is free from it only when self-esteem is based on the authenticity of one’s own feelings and not on the possession of certain qualities.”
Alice Miller
Struggling with low self-confidence? Have a look at these self-esteem quotes…
56.
“There is overwhelming evidence that the higher the level of self-esteem, the more likely one will be to treat others with respect, kindness, and generosity.”
Nathaniel Branden
57.
“Self-esteem? He knew there was really only one way to teach kids how to develop it: You give them something they can’t do, they work hard until they find they can do it, and you just keep repeating the process.”
Randy Pausch
58.
“It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.”
E.E. Cummings
59.
“Don’t forfeit your self-esteem to another’s disapproval or rejection of who you are or what you have done. Even if the most important person in your world rejects you, you are still real, and you are still okay. If you have done something inappropriate or you need to solve a problem or change a behavior, then take appropriate steps to take care of yourself. But don’t reject yourself, and don’t give so much power to other people’s rejection of you. It isn’t necessary”
Melody Beattie
60.
“The truly scary thing about undiscovered lies is that they have a greater capacity to diminish us than exposed ones. They erode our strength, our self-esteem, our very foundation.”
Cheryl Hughes
61.
“There must be only three supreme values which govern a person’s life: Reason, Purpose, and Self-esteem. Reason, as his only tool of knowledge – Purpose, as his choice of the happiness which that tool must proceed to achieve – Self-esteem, as his inviolate certainty that his mind is competent to think and his person is worthy of happiness, which means: is worthy of living. These three values imply and require all of man’s virtues, and all his virtues pertain to the relation of existence and consciousness: rationality, independence, integrity, honesty, justice, productiveness, pride.”
Ayn Rand
62.
“Disciplining yourself to do what you know is right and important, although difficult, is the highroad to pride, self-esteem, and personal satisfaction.”
Brian Tracy
63.
“There is only one real misfortune: to forfeit one’s own good opinion of oneself. Lose your complacency, once betray your own self-contempt and the world will unhesitatingly endorse it.”
Thomas Mann
64.
“True self-esteem comes from competence, not the other way around.”
Susan Cain
65.
“If we experience any failures or setbacks, we do not forget them because they offend our self-esteem. Instead, we reflect on them deeply, trying to figure out what went wrong and discern whether there are any patterns to our mistakes.”
Robert Greene
66.
“To believe in one’s self is to take a worthwhile risk.”
Ogwo David Emenike
67.
“Stand up for who you are. Respect your Self and ignite the divine sparks in you. Access your powers. Choose your rights and work together with others to bring blessings into the lives.”
Amit Ray
68.
“Never feel bad for being assertive, speaking your mind, and putting your foot down. What you think is anger, others see as a good solid display of self-esteem. „
Alison James
69.
“Accomplishments don’t erase shame, hatred, cruelty, silence, ignorance, discrimination, low self-esteem or immorality. It covers it up, with a creative version of pride and ego. Only restitution, forgiving yourself and others, compassion, repentance and living with dignity will ever erase the past.”
Shannon L. Alder
70.
“A person today who seems to have a great sense of self-esteem has his or her childhood days to thank for it.”
Stephen Richards
Here are even more self-esteem quotes for you
71.
“He who slowly destroys his own self-esteem, who does not allow himself to be helped, who spends days on end complaining about his own bad luck, about the rain that never stops, dies slowly.”
Martha Medeiros
72.
“You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.”
Maya Angelou
73.
“Only make decisions that support your self-image, self-esteem, and self-worth.”
Oprah Winfrey
74.
“If you truly feel that self-esteem and motivation have to happen first before you can make changes in your life, then we’ll probably be sharing walkers at a retirement home as we talk over what might have been.”
Shannon Alder
75.
“Everything that happens to you is a reflection of what you believe about yourself. We cannot outperform our level of self-esteem. We cannot draw to ourselves more than we think we are worth.”
Iyanla Vanzant
76.
“The worst loneliness is to not be comfortable with yourself.”
Mark Twain
77.
“A Mother who radiates self-love and self-acceptance actually vaccinates her daughter against low self-esteem. „
Naomi Wolf
78.
“Self-esteem is the reputation we acquire with ourselves.”
Nathaniel Branden
79.
“The source to low self-esteem is the lack of control you feel you have in your life. If you spend your life competing with others, trying to make right the wrongs done to you, or waste your time trying to look right, you will never achieve contentment and emotional balance.”
Shannon L. Alder
80.
“Instead of seeking self-esteem through consciousness, responsibility, and integrity, we may seek it through popularity, or material acquisitions.”
Nathaniel Branden
81.
“When our emotional health is in a bad state, so is our level of self-esteem. We have to slow down and deal with what is troubling us, so that we can enjoy the simple joy of being happy and at peace with ourselves.”
Jess C. Scott
82.
“Be an Encourager: When you encourage others, you boost their self-esteem, enhance their self-confidence, make them work harder, lift their spirits and make them successful in their endeavors. Encouragement goes straight to the heart and is always available. Be an encourager. Always.”
Roy T. Bennett
83.
“Poor self-esteem not only inhibits thought, it tends to distort it.”
Nathaniel Branden
84.
“How would your life be different if… You stopped allowing other people to dilute or poison your day with their words or opinions? Let today be the day… You stand strong in the truth of your beauty and journey through your day without attachment to the validation of others”
Steve Maraboli
85.
“Genuine self-esteem is what we feel about ourselves when everything is not all right.”
Nathaniel Branden
86.
“Trying to fill real but nonmaterial needs-for identity, community, self-esteem, challenge, love, joy – with material things is to set up an unquenchable appetite for false solutions to never-satisfied longings. A society that allows itself to admit and articulate its nonmaterial human needs, and to find nonmaterial ways to satisfy them, world require much lower material and energy throughputs and would provide much higher levels of human fulfillment.”
Donella H. Meadows
87.
“Find your self esteem from the inside.”
Lorraine Bracco
88.
“The Lord’s way builds individual self-esteem and develops and heals the dignity of the individual, whereas the world’s way depresses the individual’s view of himself and causes deep resentment”
Spencer W. Kimball
89.
“A diamond doesn’t start out polished and shining. It once was nothing special, but with enough pressure and time, becomes spectacular.”
Solange Nicole
89.
“He will always be attracted to the woman who reflects his deepest vision of himself, the woman whose surrender permits him to experience a sense of self-esteem. The man who is proudly certain of his own value, will want the highest type of woman he can find, the woman he admires, the strongest, the hardest to conquer – because only the possession of a heroine will give him the sense of an achievement.”
Ayn Rand
90.
“Why look for friends or partners who will just shore up your self-esteem instead of ones who will also challenge you to grow?”
Carol S. Dweck
Quotes about self-esteem can help you to change your life
91.
“Wise women simply see things as they are, not as their low self-esteem allows.”
Shannon L. Alder
92.
“Western parents worry a lot about their children’s self-esteem. But as a parent, one of the worst things you can do for your child’s self-esteem is to let them give up. On the flip side, there’s nothing better for building confidence than learning you can do something you thought you couldn’t.”
Amy Chua
93.
“We need to feel we are in control: it is integral to our self-esteem. We also know, though we deny it, that we are not in control. So we settle for the illusions of control. What if we stopped fooling ourselves?”
Jessica Zafra
94.
“The wounded heart learns self-love by first overcoming low self-esteem.”
Bell Hooks
95.
“Lack of confidence, sometimes alternating with unrealistic dreams of heroic success, often leads to procrastination, and many studies suggest that procrastinators are self-handicappers: rather than risk failure, they prefer to create conditions that make success impossible, a reflex that of course creates a vicious cycle.”
James Surowiecki
96.
“One’s dignity may be assaulted, vandalized and cruelly mocked, but it can never be taken away unless it is surrendered.”
Michael J. Fox
97.
“A good self-esteem level is mostly dependant on how we value ourselves without any bias.”
Stephen Richards
98.
“When you express “purity” which is the truth about yourself, you feel a love for yourself that is expressed by self-respect, self-esteem, and self-confidence!”
Dr. Tae Yun Kim
99.
“In addition, if a person makes the error of identifying self with his work (rather than with the internal virtues that make the work possible), if self-esteem is tied primarily to accomplishments, success, income, or being a good family provider, the danger is that economic circumstances beyond the individual’s control may lead to the failure of the business or the loss of a job, flinging him into depression or acute demoralization.”
Nathaniel Branden
100.
“When people cheat in any arena, they diminish themselves-they threaten their own self-esteem and their relationships with others by undermining the trust they have in their ability to succeed and in their ability to be true.”
Cheryl Hughes
101.
“The most terrifying thing is to accept oneself completely.”
C.G. Jung
102.
“The most stable, and therefore, the most healthy self-esteem is based on deserved respect from others rather than on external fame or celebrity and unwarranted adulation.”
Abraham Maslow
103.
“Every act of conscious learning requires the willingness to suffer an injury to one’s self-esteem. That is why young children, before they are aware of their own self-importance, learn so easily; and why older persons, especially if vain or important, cannot learn at all.”
Thomas Szasz
104.
“Confront the dark parts of yourself, and work to banish them with illumination and forgiveness. Your willingness to wrestle with your demons will cause your angels to sing.”
August Wilson
105.
“Low self-esteem causes me to believe that I have so little worth that my response does not matter. With repentance, however, I understand that being worth so much to God is why my response is so important. Repentance is remedial work to mend our minds and hearts, which get bent by sin.”
John Ortberg
106.
“The man who is willing to put in the time and meet the requirements is the one you want to stick around, because that guy is making a conscious decision that he, too, has no interest in playing games and will do what it takes to not only stay on the job, but also get promoted and be the proud beneficiary of your benefits. And you, in the meantime, win the ultimate prize of maintaining your dignity and self-esteem, and earning the respect of the man who recognized that you were worth the wait.”
Steve Harvey
107.
“Before you diagnose yourself with depression or low self-esteem, first make sure that you are not, in fact, just surrounded by idiots.”
William Gibson
108.
“Nothing is better for self-esteem than survival.”
Martha Gellhorn
109.
“In order to deal with reality successfully – to pursue and achieve the values which his life requires – man needs self-esteem; he needs to be confident of his efficacy and worth.”
Ayn Rand
110.
“Self-esteem is for sissies. Accept that you’re a pimple and try to keep a lively sense of humor about it. That way lies grace—and maybe even glory.”
Tom Robbins
111.
“Research discloses that high self-esteem is one of the best predictors of personal happiness.”
Nathaniel Branden
I hope you enjoyed this collection of self-esteem quotes. What are your tricks that help you to improve your courage?
Stay victorious!
