111 Powerful Self‑Esteem and Confidence Quotes

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Check out these 111 powerful self‑esteem and confidence quotes to strengthen your inner resilience and get a boost of motivation in small, meaningful doses. Self‑esteem plays a major role in every part of your life. From your closest relationships with your spouse, family, and friends to the way you manage your career, your daily decisions, and even your finances, self‑esteem influences it all. The way you see and evaluate yourself shapes your thoughts, your emotions, your behavior, and ultimately the choices you make in life.

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111 Powerful Self‑Esteem and Confidence Quotes

A study from the University of Cambridge found that successful entrepreneurs tend to have higher self‑esteem and are more willing to take risks. In their book Self‑Esteem, Christophe André and François Lelord compare self‑esteem to a financial asset and offer a powerful example: big investors with large portfolios are able to take bigger risks than small investors. And even though they may lose at times, they still end up earning more overall. In the same way, people with high self‑esteem are willing to invest more in themselves and take greater risks—so they ultimately gain more, both materially and psychologically.

Moreover, people with high self‑esteem tend to handle life’s challenges more easily. Research also shows that when a task is demanding, those with high self‑esteem actually put in more effort. In contrast, people with low self‑esteem often try harder only when the challenge feels easy or low‑pressure.

18 What is Self-Esteem Quotes

Self‑esteem is the confidence you have in your own worth and abilities. Here are 21 what is self-esteem quotes:

“Because one believes in oneself, one doesn’t try to convince others. Because one is content with oneself, one doesn’t need others’ approval. Because one accepts oneself, the whole world accepts him or her.” — Lao Tzu
“Self-esteem is the reputation we acquire with ourselves.” — Nathaniel Branden
“The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.” — Carl Rogers
“We must not allow other people’s limited perceptions to define us.” — Virginia Satir
“You have been criticizing yourself for years and it hasn’t worked. Try approving of yourself and see what happens.” — Louise Hay
“The opposite of courage in our society is not cowardice; it is conformity.” — Rollo May
“To be beautiful means to be yourself.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
“You alone are enough. You have nothing to prove to anybody.” — Maya Angelou

“We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.” — Anaïs Nin
“You are imperfect, you are wired for struggle, but you are worthy of love and belonging.” — Brené Brown
“I wish that every human life might be pure transparent freedom.” — Simone de Beauvoir
“Man suffers only because he takes seriously what the gods made for fun.” — Alan Watts
“Face the facts of being what you are, for that is what changes what you are.” — Søren Kierkegaard
“Anyone who ever gave you confidence, you owe them a lot.” — Truman Capote
“You have to decide who you are and force the world to deal with you.” — James Baldwin
“In the depths of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.” — Albert Camus
“To love yourself is to know that your worth does not depend on what you do or what you have.” — Eckhart Tolle

21 Low Self-Esteem Quotes

“She lacks confidence, she craves admiration insatiably. She lives on the reflections of herself in the eyes of others. She does not dare to be herself.” — Anaïs Nin
“The greatest tragedy is when the self we are meant to be remains unrealized.” — Carl Jung
“I am terrified by this dark thing that sleeps in me.” — Sylvia Plath
“I am a cage, in search of a bird.” — Franz Kafka
“If you want to be happy, be.” — Leo Tolstoy
“Doubt is a pain too lonely to know that faith is his twin brother.” — Kahlil Gibran
“Taking a new step… is what people fear most.” — Fyodor Dostoevsky
“I am what I think you think I am.” — Charles Cooley
“Some of us think holding on makes us strong; but sometimes it is letting go.” — Herman Hesse
“If you are lonely when you’re alone, you are in bad company.” — Jean-Paul Sartre

“Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.” — Rainer Maria Rilke
“Comparison is the death of joy.” — Mark Twain
“The soul selects her own society.” — Emily Dickinson
“To fear love is to fear life.” — Bertrand Russell
“You begin saving the world by saving one person at a time.” — Charles Bukowski
“We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” — George Bernard Shaw
“We humanize everything only by speaking of it.” — Hannah Arendt
“We are spinning our own fates, good or evil.” — William James
“He who conquers himself is the mightiest warrior.” — Confucius
“It is easier to resist at the beginning than at the end.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“If you haven’t the strength to impose your own terms upon life, you must accept the terms it offers.” — T.S. Eliot

20 Positive Self-Esteem Quotes

“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
“I celebrate myself, and sing myself.” — Walt Whitman
“I am not afraid of being myself.” — Jane Austen
“I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship.” — Louisa May Alcott
“It takes a long time to become young.” — Pablo Picasso
“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.” — Albert Einstein
“Be alone—that is the secret of invention.” — Nikola Tesla
“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams.” — Henry David Thoreau
“If I didn’t define myself, I would be crunched into other people’s fantasies for me.” — Audre Lorde
“The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease forever to be able to do it.” — J.M. Barrie

“When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in.” — Haruki Murakami
“You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop.” — Rumi
“The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts.” — Marcus Aurelius
“Beauty awakens the soul to act.” — Dante Alighieri
“As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“We look at the world once, in childhood. The rest is memory.” — Louise Glück
“You yourself, as much as anybody in the universe, deserve your love and affection.” — Buddha
“Risk! Risk anything!” — Katherine Mansfield
“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement.” — Helen Keller
“All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence; then success is sure.” — Mark Twain

12 Confidence and Self-Esteem Quotes

“Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.” — Norman Vincent Peale
“All you need is confidence in yourself. There is no living thing that is not afraid when it faces danger. The true courage is in facing danger when you are afraid, and that kind of courage you have in plenty.” — L. Frank Baum
“Stay afraid, but do it anyway. What’s important is the action. You don’t have to wait to be confident. Just do it and eventually the confidence will follow.” — Carrie Fisher
“As I began to love myself I understood that at any circumstance, I am in the right place at the right time, and everything happens at the exactly right moment. So I could be calm. Today I call it “SELF-CONFIDENCE”. — Charlie Chaplin
“No man has the right to dictate what other men should perceive, create or produce, but all should be encouraged to reveal themselves, their perceptions and emotions, and to build confidence in the creative spirit.” — Ansel Adams

“You have to accept the fact that other people are not perfect.” — Louise Bourgeois
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” — Marcel Proust
“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” — Alice Walker
“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” — C.S. Lewis
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” — Thomas Edison
“When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you achieve it.” — Paulo Coelho
“Believe in your infinite potential. Your only limitations are those you set upon yourself.” — Roy T. Bennett

24 Building Self-Esteem Quotes

“You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
“Change your thoughts and you change your world.” — Norman Vincent Peale
“Peace begins with a smile.” — Mother Teresa
“We live in the light of our own kindliness.” — Iris Murdoch
“What is to give light must endure burning.” — Viktor Frankl
“Talk to yourself like someone you love.” — Brené Brown
“Learn what is to be taken seriously and laugh at the rest.” — Hermann Hesse
“You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep spring from coming.” — Pablo Neruda
“What you seek is seeking you.” — Rumi
“First say to yourself what you would be; then do what you have to do.” — Epictetus

“Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.” — Albert Schweitzer
“Every great dream begins with a dreamer.” — Harriet Tubman
“To be broken is no reason to see all things as broken.” — Mark Nepo
“And now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good.” — John Steinbeck
“In a gentle way, you can shake the world.” — Mahatma Gandhi
“Every action you take is a vote for the person you wish to become.” — James Clear
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” — Mary Oliver
“What makes the desert beautiful is that somewhere it hides a well.” — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
“I am in the right place at the right time, doing the right thing.” — Louise Hay
“Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.” — Robert Frost

20 Short Self-Esteem Quotes

“The first and greatest victory is to conquer yourself.” — Plato
“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” — Aristotle
“Our doubts are traitors.” — William Shakespeare
“Never confuse motion with action.” — Benjamin Franklin
“Always be yourself, express yourself.” — Bruce Lee
“You are your best thing.” — Toni Morrison
“Man is free at the moment he wishes to be.” — Voltaire
“The heaviest burden is really existence.” — Milan Kundera
“Not all those who wander are lost.” — J.R.R. Tolkien
“Love of others and love of ourselves are not alternatives.” — Erich Fromm

“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood.” — Marie Curie
“Mistakes are the portals of discovery.” — James Joyce
“Become who you are.” — Friedrich Nietzsche
“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” — Oscar Wilde
“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.” — Lao Tzu
“He who is brave is free.” — Seneca
“It is never too late to be what you might have been.” — George Eliot
“Have a heart that never hardens.” —Charles Dickens
“Self-acceptance is the real key to change.” — Albert Ellis
“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me.” — Charlotte Brontë

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References

Sigall, Harold; Gould, Robert, The effects of self-esteem and evaluator demandingness on effort expenditure, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol 35(1), Jan 1977, 12-20.

Christophe André & Francois Lelord, L’Estime de soi: S’aimer pour mieux vivre avec les autres, 2008, Posh Odile Jacob.

Sigall, Harold; Gould, Robert, The effects of self-esteem and evaluator demandingness on effort expenditure, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol 35(1), Jan 1977, 12-20.(Visited 1 times, 1 visits today)