138 Confidence-Boosting Quotes

In a world where self-doubt often shadows our aspirations, a few powerful words can make all the difference. Whether you're preparing for a big presentation, facing a challenging decision, or simply looking to brighten your day, the right quote can ignite your inner strength and foster unwavering confidence. We've carefully gathered 138 of the most inspiring confidence-boosting quotes to uplift your spirit and fortify your resolve. Allow these words of wisdom to empower you on your journey toward a more confident and fulfilled life.

1. “Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.” - Bertrand Russell

2. “Accept who you are; and revel in it.” - Mitch Albom

3. “You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.' You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” - Eleanor Roosevelt

4. “If ever there is tomorrow when we're not together... there is something you must always remember. You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. But the most important thing is, even if we're apart... I'll always be with you.” - Carter Crocker

5. “A clear vision, backed by definite plans, gives you a tremendous feeling of confidence and personal power.” - Brian Tracy

6. “A tattoo is a true poetic creation, and is always more than meets the eye. As a tattoo is grounded on living skin, so its essence emotes a poignancy unique to the mortal human condition.” - V. Vale

7. “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

8. “If being an egomaniac means I believe in what I do and in my art or music, then in that respect you can call me that... I believe in what I do, and I'll say it.” - John Lennon

9. “Those who trust us educate us.” - George Eliot

10. “Self-consciousness kills communication.” - Rick Steves

11. “What could we accomplish if we knew we could not fail?” - Eleanor Roosevelt

12. “He owned an expensive camera that required thought before you pressed the shutter, and I quickly became his favorite subject, round-faced, missing teeth, my thick bangs in need of a trim. They are still the pictures of myself I like best, for they convey that confidence of youth I no longer possess, especially in front of a camera.” - Jhumpa Lahiri

13. “I'm young as morningand fresh as dew.Everybody loves meand so do you.” - Maya Angelou

14. “What has our culture lost in 1980 that the avant-garde had in 1890? Ebullience, idealism, confidence, the belief that there was plenty of territory to explore, and above all the sense that art, in the most disinterested and noble way, could find the necessary metaphors by which a radically changing culture could be explained to its inhabitants.” - Robert Hughes

15. “Sex appeal is fifty percent what you've got and fifty percent what people think you've got.” - Sophia Loren

16. “It’s the fire in my eyes, And the flash of my teeth, The swing in my waist, And the joy in my feet. I’m a woman Phenomenally.” - Maya Angelou

17. “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

18. “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

19. “Well i am just going to try!" she thought confidently!” - Carollynn Lemky

20. “And suddenly she knew exactly why Catherine had fallen in love with him. It wasn't that he was unusually attractive, or ambitious, or even charming. He was partly those things, but more important, he seemed to live life on his own terms.” - Nicholas Sparks

21. “Confidence in others' honesty is no light testimony of one's own integrity.” - Michel de Montaigne

22. “I do not care so much what I am to others as I care what I am to myself.” - Michel de Montaigne

23. “A great man is always willing to be little.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

24. “You have no responsibility to live up to what other people think you ought to accomplish. I have no responsibility to be like they expect me to be. It's their mistake, not my failing.” - Richard P. Feynman

25. “The church says the earth is flat; but I have seen its shadow on the moon, and I have more confidence even in a shadow than in the church.” - Ferdinand Magellan

26. “What is it about wearing a tuxedo or that little black dress, that makes us feel confident, beautiful, splendid, even invincible?We put on formal wear and suddenly we become extraordinary.On the days when you feel low and invisible, why not try this on for size: imagine you are wearing a fantastic tailored tuxedo or a stunning formal gown.And then proceed with your day.” - Vera Nazarian

27. “Never dull your shine for somebody else.” - Tyra Banks

28. “For in some ways the world was like a shopping centre, and he himself was a doubtful customer, often ineffectual, being talked into buying things he didn't want, things indeed which nobody in their right mind would want to buy.” - Margaret Mahy

29. “Pamela realizes for the first time in her life that she hadn't made the wrong choice at all. Nor had she made the right choice. She had simply made a choice. And somewhere along the way, she had lost the courage to live by it.” - Pip Karmel

30. “Your greatness is revealed not by the lights that shine upon you, but by the light that shines within you.” - Ray A. Davis

31. “Whever I came into the room, she'd light up, so happy to see me. No one ever in the course of my entire life was ever as happy to see me as she was. Looking back, now, I realize that you only ever need one person who lights up that way when you enter a room. One person is all it takes to give a kid confidence.” - Adriana Trigiani

32. “Sometimes, some lies that spoken with high confidencecould be more receptive than facts that spoken with doubt.” - Toba Beta

33. “Most men claim to desire driven, independent and confident women. Yet when confronted with such a creature reverence often evolves into resent. For just like women, men need to be needed.” - Tiffany Madison

34. “I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than all the rest of men, but yet sets less value on his own opinion of himself than on the opinion of others.” - Marcus Aurelius

35. “Maybe if I act well enough, I'll come to believe it myself.” - Garth Nix

36. “She felt the cold blast from the sterile air conditioning on her bare arms and thighs, as she ambled down the center of the shopping complex's ground floor.The scene was a swirl of candy bright lights--the Victoria's Secret fuchsia signboard, signboards which lured one to purchase "confidence," or "sexual appeal," or whatever it was that was being advertised--the fluorescent lights in each store, contrasting with the shiny, black-tiled walls and eye-catching speckled marble tiles on the ground.One could lick the floor--the tiles were spotless, clean like the fake air she was breathing in, like the atoms and cells in her that were decaying in stale neglect.” - Jess C. Scott

37. “The only power that exists is inside ourselves.” - Anne Rice

38. “How are you feeling, man?" he asks me."Great," I tell him, and it is purely the truth. Doves clatter up out of a bare tree and turn at the same instant, transforming themselves from steel to silver in the snow-blown light. I know at that moment that the drug is working. Everything before me has become suddenly, radiantly itself. How could Carlton have known this was about to happen? "Oh," I whisper. His hand settles on my shoulder."Stay loose, Frisco," he says. "There's not a thing in this pretty world to be afraid of. I'm here."I am not afraid. I am astonished. I had not realized until this moment how real everything is. A twig lies on the marble at my feet, bearing a cluster of hard brown berries. The broken-off end is raw, white, fleshly. Trees are alive."I'm here," Carlton says again, and he is.” - Michael Cunningham

39. “Concentration comes out of a combination of confidence and hunger.” - Arnold Palmer

40. “You see, the point is that the strongest man in the world is he who stands most alone.” - Henrik Ibsen

41. “I'm not exactly Miss Confidence. I busy myself with all kinds of activities and I do well in school and I try to look pretty but I still need someone to tell me I'm worthwhile. To show me attention. I don't like it. I don't like it at all...” - Stephen Emond

42. “You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul.” - Vivekananda

43. “I feel my fear moving away in rings through time for a million years.” - Breece D'J Pancake

44. “A bore or an uggo might manage not to get up anyone's nose, but if a girl's got brains and looks and personality, she's going to piss someone off, somewhere along the way.” - Tana French

45. “Your appearance, attitude, and confidence define you as a person.A professional, well-dressed golfer, like a businessperson, gives the impression that he thinks that the golf course and/or workplace and the people there are important.” - Lorii Myers

46. “But human beings are not machines, and however powerful the pressure to conform, they sometimes are so moved by what they see as injustice that they dare to declare their independence. In that historical possibility lies hope.” - Howard Zinn

47. “The world is full of men who want to be right, when actually the secret of a man's strength and his pathway to true honor is his ability to admit fault when he has failed. God wants to fill the church with men who can say they are wrong when THEY ARE WRONG. A man who is willing to humble himself before God and his family and say:"I was wrong." will find that his family has all the confidence in the world in him and will much more readily follow him. If he stubbornly refuses to repent or admit he was wrong, their confidence in him and in his leadership erodes.” - Jim Anderson

48. “To share your weakness is to make yourself vulnerable; to make yourself vulnerable is to show your strength.” - Criss Jami

49. “Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If youwant to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.” - Dale Carnegia

50. “Your core, lying deep within you, is what makes you what you are. Some call it the soul, the Higher Self, the true self, the being and so on. The name is unimportant once you realize that you are more than your looks and outward appearance.” - Stephen Richards

51. “This inner Being is all powerful, intelligent, indestructible and a storehouse of knowledge and wisdom. This inner core is truly who and what you are and is perpetually trying to connect with your outward self.” - Stephen Richards

52. “Stop comparing yourself with others. If they are good at something, you too are good at something else. Self-confidence is not measured by your own capabilities versus that of others, but by your own needs.” - Stephen Richards

53. “Jedi are conversationalists and negotiators, bringing people together and solving problems. Jedi listen and feel to what others are saying.” - Stephen Richards

54. “A Master Jedi feels emotions, but they do not allow them to influence their reasoning. Yoda told Luke that he would know the good from the bad when he was 'calm, at peace.” - Stephen Richards

55. “My theory was that if I behaved like a confident, cheerful person, eventually I would buy it myself, and become that. I always had traces of strength somewhere inside me, it wasn't fake, it was just a way of summoning my courage to the fore and not letting any creeping self-doubt hinder my adventures. This method worked then, and it works now. I tell myself that I am the sort of person who can open a one-woman play in the West End, so I do. I am the sort of person who has several companies, so I do. I am the sort of person WHO WRITES A BOOK! So I do. It's the process of having faith in the self you don't quite know you are yet, if you see what I mean. Believing that you will find the strength, the means somehow, and trusting in that, although your legs are like jelly. You can still walk on them and you will find the bones as you walk. Yes, that's it. The further I walk, the stronger I become. So unlike the real lived life, where the further you walk, the more your hips hurt.” - Dawn French

56. “The rose has toldIn one simplicityThat never lifeRelinquishes a bloomBut to bestowAn ancient confidence.” - Nathalia Crane

57. “An exceedingly confident student would in theory make a terrible student. Why would he take school seriously when he feels that he can outwit his teachers?” - Criss Jami

58. “The devil's happy when the critics run you off.” - Criss Jami

59. “Ariel sighed. “How are you not self-conscious about that?”Kitty chuckled. “Hey, I got used to it in a hurry, and I kind of like the side perks. I always wanted to … y’know, be superhuman, do some of the things I’ve been able to do with this setup.” She curled her tail up to take it in her hands. “Now I know how the guys feel, having something extra in your pants tends to be awkward after a while.” - Don A. Martinez

60. “One of the greatest regrets in life is being what others would want you to be, rather than being yourself.” - Shannon L. Alder

61. “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

62. “Confidence doesn't come from what you think you know, it comes from what you already know.” - Abdulkadir Abdullahi Mohamed Mirre

63. “May our effort, confidence and concern for others be the altar from which we pray for personal abundance.” - Laura Teresa Marquez

64. “You can have regret from yesterday, fear tomorrow, but peace today by sharing your heart’s deepest feelings. A life spent being fearful of showing your soul is a life not worth living.” - Shannon Alder

65. “There had been a time when I owned my life and now I felt like I was coming around to myself again. It's like I've finally discovered bones in myself I never knew I had. I discovered that it takes bravery to be one's self. I now know that the only thing I needed to be afraid of was of not finding my true self and having the courage to be me.” - Benilde Little

66. “There will always be someone willing to hurt you, put you down, gossip about you, belittle your accomplishments and judge your soul. It is a fact that we all must face. However, if you realize that God is a best friend that stands beside you when others cast stones you will never be afraid, never feel worthless and never feel alone.” - Shannon Alder

67. “... I felt something and vowed that if I ever got a girl I would treat her right and never be bad or dirty to her or hurt her, ever. I vowed it and had all the confidence in the world that I would keep the vow.” - Markus Zusak

68. “I was the Duff. And that was a good thing. Because anyone who didn't feel like the Duff must not have friends. Every girl feels unattractive sometimes. Why had it taken me so long to figure that out? Why had I been stressing over that dumb word for so long when it was so simple? I should be proud to be the Duff. Proud to have great friends who, in their minds, were my Duffs.” - Kody Keplinger

69. “I was beautiful; after all, my skin was as rich and dark as wet, brown mud, a complexion that any and every pale white girl would pray for - that is, if she believed in God. My butt sat high in the air and my hips obviously gave birth to Creation. Titties like mangoes, firm, sweet, and ready. My thighs and legs were big and powerful, kicking Vanna White and Cindy Crawford to the curb.” - Sister Souljah

70. “...Granny Weatherwax, who had walked nightly without fear in the bandit-haunted forests of the mountains all her life in the certain knowledge that the darkness held nothing more terrible than she was...” - Terry Pratchett

71. “You can be confident and secure and know that you do a good job at what you do but you don't have to be arrogant about it.” - Ruben Studdard

72. “The secret to life is to have no fear. When you can let go of what others think about you, how something is going to turn out, or how your past will affect your future, then you are finally living life free.” - Shannon L. Alder

73. “Love springs from the inside. It is the immortal surge of passion, excitement, energy, power, strength, prosperity, recognition, respect, desire, determination, enthusiasm, confidence, courage, and vitality, that nourishes, extends and protects. It possesses an external objective - life.” - Ogwo David Emenike

74. “Surely it is the one who fears he is wrong who avoids criticism. The one who is sure he is right invites it. It only illuminates the strength of beliefs and makes them more available to others.” - David L. Wolfe

75. “The biggest human temptation is to settle for too little.” - Thomas Merton

76. “If you want to find the real competition, just look in the mirror. After awhile you'll see your rivals scrambling for second place.” - Criss Jami

77. “I would hesitate to use the word 'success' in the way many people do. I don't know that I would apply it to what I've done as though I have now reached the ultimate goal. To me success is a continuing thing. It is growth and development. It is achieving one thing and using that as a stepping stone to achieve something else. Success comes as you have confidence in yourself. Self-confidence is built by succeeding, even if the success is small. It is the believing that makes it possible.” - Walter Knott

78. “I aine never seen a fox before. So, why should I be scared of you and I don't even-now know you a real fox for a fact?” - Patricia C. McKissack

79. “When your only regret is if anyone thinks you regret anything - that is the definition of conviction.” - Criss Jami

80. “I walked out. I left. Andy Jankowski had taught me how.” - Nancy Werlin

81. “There is nothing more attractive than confidence, once she sees her own beauty, everyone else will.” - Habeeb Akande

82. “Well, laddie, if you've let an old buzzard like me hurt you confidence, you couldn't have had much in the first place.” - Tamora Pierce

83. “And when you play this song, hold your head high, motherfucker, don't ever look down, be comfortable with who you are, our flaws are what makes us perfect” - Machine Gun Kelly

84. “When you have the courage to follow your talents into the dark unknown places they lead, often God will send angels to light your way.” - Shannon Alder

85. “Confidence is providence” - Habeeb Akande

86. “Arrogance is thinking you are above someone else, Confidence is knowing no one is above you.” - Habeeb Akande

87. “The secret to your purpose is to find what you feel is important, and not pursue what others would think is important. When you think highly of yourself, me thinking highly of you will never be enough!” - Shannon L. Alder

88. “The problem with this generation is they are so quick to define who they are in the process of searching. It is their need for immediate acceptance that keeps them from exploring further.” - Shannon Alder

89. “...don't be self-conscious - other people are completely unaware of you and more concerned with how they appear ...” - John Geddes

90. “Invest in yourself. Invest in self-discipline. Invest in self-satisfaction. Have complete control over your own thoughts and convictions, and never stop aiming to outdo yourself.” - Lionel Suggs

91. “We never know how high we areTill we are called to rise;And then, if we are true to plan,Our statures touch the skies.The heroism we reciteWould be a daily thing,Did not ourselves the cubits warpFor fear to be a king.” - Emily Dickinson

92. “At this point in my life, beaming confidence is largely a matter of mind over bladder control” - Josh Stern

93. “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?” (Hebrews 13:5–6)” - John Piper

94. “If a man, who says he loves you, won’t tell you the details of a private conversation between him and another woman you can be sure he is not protecting your heart. He is protecting himself and the women he has feelings for. Wise women simply see things as they are, not as their low self-esteem allows.” - Shannon L. Alder

95. “There is more to joy than looking only for affirmation; refusing to be challenged is the only bigotry.” - Criss Jami

96. “Just because you're from a small town doesn't mean that you're small. Don't ever think anyone's more important than you are or has more valid experiences.” - Gwendolyn Heasley

97. “I have lost my spark, I'm told, and should seek to rekindle it.  Respecting the messenger, I wonder if this is true.  I feel as if my spark endures, but having opened up to the world so bright, perhaps it no longer shines by comparison.  So, without a word, I slip back into seclusion to nurture my beautiful inner glow.” - Richelle E. Goodrich

98. “I imagine that the intelligent people are the ones so intelligent that they don't even need or want to look 'intelligent' anymore.” - Criss Jami

99. “The tide of history only advances when people make themselves fully visible.” - Anderson Cooper

100. “We need to have far less confidence in what man can do and far moreconfidence in what God can do for every believing soul. He longs to haveyou reach after Him by faith. He longs to have you expect great thingsfrom Him. He longs to give you understanding in temporal as well as inspiritual matters. He can sharpen the intellect. He can give tact andskill. Put your talents into the work, ask God for wisdom, and it will begiven you.” - Ellen G. White

101. “Fake it till you feel it” - Gemma Burgess

102. “One who has lost confidence can lose nothing more.” - Pierre-Claude-Victor Boiste

103. “...because I went to London on my own, and because I went to solved the mystery of Who Killed Wellington? and I found my mother and I was brave and I wrote a book and that means I can do anything.” - Mark Haddon

104. “Carry the confidence.” - Diane Chamberlain

105. “Perhaps I'd been a slow developer, but I was well into my forties before I realized that you don't have to comply with a request just because it's reasonable or reasonably put. Age is the great dis-obliger. You can be yourself and say no.” - Ian McEwan

106. “Faith to me is trusting in every evidence that something is―that it is possible, that it is significant, that it is real.” - Richelle E. Goodrich

107. “I have never written on any subject unless I believed that the authorities on it were hopelessly wrong.” - Samuel Butler

108. “Fighting to fit in. Confidence is paper thin.” - Tony Alfonso

109. “I have an inward treasure born with me, which can keep me alive if all extraneous delights should be withheld, or offered only at a price I cannot afford to give.” - Charlotte Brontë

110. “Real confidence has a realistic view of itself. It knows what it is capable of and not capable of. Real confidence does not need to overcompensate for anything, it doesn’t have to try harder to be more than what it already is. Real confidence does not beat itself up when it makes a mistake. Real confidence is secure enough to let someone else take the credit for something, without losing its own identity. Real confidence is humble. Real confidence recognizes its weaknesses and limitations, and is secure enough to admit when it is wrong."'Living With Confidence: From Fear To Love” - Dan Pedersen

111. “To try is to invite uncertainty. Where confidence goes, success usually follows.” - Wayne Gerard Trotman

112. “It is not so much that I have confidence in scientists being right, but that I have so much in nonscientists being wrong.” - Isaac Asimov

113. “Style comes from knowing who you are and who you want to be in the world; it does not come from wanting to be somebody else, or wanting to be thinner, shorter, taller, prettier.” - Nina Garcia

114. “You can't insure against the future, except by really believing in the best bit of you, and in the power beyond it.” - D.H. Lawrence

115. “Remember this: No one is looking at your imperfections; they're all too busy worrying about their own.” - Isaac Mizrahi

116. “Few and mean as my gifts may be, I actually am, and do not need for my own assurance or the assurance of my fellows any secondary testimony.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

117. “This little man was of the order of beings who must not be opposed, unless you possessed an all-dominant force sufficient to crush him at once.” - Charlotte Brontë

118. “His own image; no longer a dark, gray bird, ugly and disagreeable to look at, but a graceful and beautiful swan. To be born in a duck's nest, in a farmyard, is of no consequence to a bird, if it is hatched from a swan's egg.” - Hans Christian Andersen

119. “The third gift is Courage. May you speak and act with confidence and use courage to follow your own path.” - Charlene Costanzo

120. “Most of the time, we try to tell ourselves "I'm confident" or "I'm doing well." But then, in a moment alone at home, you feel how close you are to some kind of abyss.” - Christian Tetzlaff

121. “With the knowledge of her aloneness came a rush of self-declaration: I will not be nothing.” - Robin McKinley

122. “Fake confidence on the outside often trumps truthful turmoil on the inside.” - Rob Lowe

123. “The groove is so mysterious. We're born with it and we lose it and the world seems to split apart before our eyes into stupid and cool. When we get it back, the world unifies around us, and both stupid and cool fall away.I am grateful to those who are keepers of the groove. The babies and the grandmas who hang on to it and help us remember when we forget that any kind of dancing is better than no dancing at all.” - Lynda Barry

124. “When you say, "I need more confidence," what you're really saying is, "I need those people over there to approve of me."That is the desire to control other people and what they think. The first person who figures out how to do this owns the world.” - Augusten Burroughs

125. “You’ve got to be sure of yourself beforeYou can ever win a prize.” - Napoleon Hill

126. “It is a noble responsibility to not back down when you know that you know that you know that you are right.” - Criss Jami

127. “A young outcast will often feel that there is something wrong with himself, but as he gets older, grows more confident in who he is, he will adapt, he will begin to feel that there is something wrong with everyone else.” - Criss Jami

128. “Confidence is the attitude of success.” - Bianca Frazier

129. “Confidence is a life ingredient that is essential to success and wholeness. It is perhaps the single most important trait that enables seemingly average people to do and become all that they can. And the good news is – it can be learned. No one has to suffer a lifetime of low confidence.” - Steve Goodier

130. “Most people think confidence lies in an excessive rehearsal. It’s true that man has to prepare, plan and practice before projecting his purposes. But a time must definitely arrive when man has to put an end to learning and rehearsal and start practicing what he spent time learning.” - Israelmore Ayivor

131. “You. You are standing in your own way. And that means whatever it is scares you. It won't forever...but take your time. Nothing good was ever rushed.” - Suzanne Palmieri

132. “One-time rival and subsequent usurper Secretary of State Seward finally settled into an assessment of Lincoln that, "His confidence and compassion increase every day.” - Doris Kearns Goodwin

133. “Confidence is sexy!” - Tracy Allen

134. “In its essence, faith is a confidence in the person of Jesus Christ and in His power, so that even when His power does not serve my end, my confidence in Him remains because of who He is.” - Ravi Zacharias

135. “Wake-up! Think for yourself, be yourself and return to what is real.” - Bryant McGill

136. “...If there's one thing I'm well versed in it's my own good qualities.” - Patrick Rothfuss

137. “Becoming limitless involves mental agility; the ability to quickly grasp and incorporate new ideas and concepts with confidence.” - Lorii Myers

138. “The worst thing to call somebody is crazy, it's dismissive. 'But I don't understand this person', so they're crazy. That's bullshit cause people are not crazy, they strong people, maybe their environment is a little sick.” - Dave Chapelle