144 Confidence-Boosting Quotes

In a world that often tries to bring us down, maintaining self-confidence can feel like an uphill battle. Whether you're facing a challenging situation, embarking on a new venture, or simply navigating the ups and downs of daily life, a boost of self-assurance can go a long way. That's why we've curated a collection of the top 144 confidence-boosting quotes to uplift your spirits and reinforce your inner strength. These powerful words of wisdom, gathered from thinkers, leaders, and visionaries, serve as a reminder of the immense potential within you. Dive in and let these inspiring quotes reignite your belief in yourself, one empowering phrase at a time.

1. “Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind.” - Bernard M. Baruch

2. “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

3. “There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do.” - Marianne Williamson

4. “When I was a child my mother said to me, 'If you become a soldier, you'll be a general. If you become a monk, you'll be the pope.' Instead I became a painter and wound up as Picasso.” - Pablo Picasso

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

6. “Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.” - Mahatma Gandhi

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

8. “Success is most often achieved by those who don't know that failure is inevitable.” - Coco Chanel

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

10. “Confidence is the prize given to the mediocre” - Robert Hughes

11. “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

12. “There can be no friendship without confidence, and no confidence without integrity.” - Samuel Johnson

13. “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

14. “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

15. “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

16. “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

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

18. “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

19. “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

20. “I wouldn't describe myself as lacking in confidence, but I would just say that - the ghosts you chase you never catch.” - John Malkovich

21. “We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same.” - Carlos Castaneda

22. “Hard to feel confident when you’re surrounded by horse-sized wolves. - Emmett Cullen” - Stephenie Meyer

23. “Human spirit is the ability to face the uncertainty of the future with curiosity and optimism. It is the belief that problems can be solved, differences resolved. It is a type of confidence. And it is fragile. It can be blackened by fear, and superstition. By the year 2050, when the conflict began, the world had fallen upon fearful, superstitious times.” - Bernard Beckett

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

25. “When you have to kill the same terrorist twice in one week, then there's either something wrong with your skills or something wrong with your world. And there's nothing wrong with my skills.” - Jonathan Maberry

26. “Sierra felt full of hope and confidence in God. She knew who she was. And she knew Whose she was.Whatever mysterious plan God had for her life, it would be an interesting one. As Christy had said earlier, God writes a different story for each person. Sierra decided hers might not be a bestseller or even a thriller. It certainly wasn't a romance. But it was turning into a fine mystery. And she could live with that.” - Robin Jones Gunn

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

28. “Wow, someone woke up on the wrong side of the Midol.” - Denise Jaden

29. “Let others determine your worth and you're already lost, because no one wants people worth more than themselves.” - Peter V. Brett

30. “When they say the sky's the limit to me that's really true” - Michael Jackson

31. “I know that mirrors give us a false sense of confidence.” I continued. “The reflection that we see everyday has nothing to do with how others see us. The glass lies.” - Rasmenia Massoud

32. “To country people Cows are mild,And flee from any stick they throw;But I’m a timid town bred child,And all the cattle seem to know.” - T. S. Eliot

33. “I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours..” - Thoreau Henry David

34. “So many people are shut up tight inside themselves like boxes, yet they would open up, unfolding quite wonderfully, if only you were interested in them."(Initiation)” - Sylvia Plath

35. “To quote Gandhi yet again, "If I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.” - Jeff Yeager

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

37. “You have been told that, even like a chain, you are as weak as your weakest link.This is but half the truth.You are also as strong as your strongest link.To measure you by your smallest deed is to reckon the power of the oceanby the frailty of its foam.To judge you by your failures is to cast blame upon the seasons for their inconstancy.” - Kahlil Gibran

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

39. “But ... but what if I hit you?”A snort. “You’re not going to hit me.”“How do you know?” I bristled at his amused tone. “I could hit you. Even master swordsmen make mistakes. I could get a lucky shot, or you might not see me coming. I don’t want to hurt you.”He favored me with another patient look. “And how much experience do you have with swords and weapons in general?” “Um.” I glanced down at the saber in my hand. “Thirty seconds?”He smiled, that calm, irritatingly confident smirk. “You’re not going to hit me.” - Julie Kagawa

40. “No name-calling truly bites deep unless, in some dark part of us, we believe it. If we are confident enough then it is just noise.” - Laurell K. Hamilton

41. “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

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

43. “He was grand in his convictions. He would stride forward to meet his own destruction.” - Natsume Soseki

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. “Trying to build myself up with the fact that I have done things right that were even good and have had moments that were excellent but the bad is heavier to carry around and feel have no confidence.” - Marilyn Monroe

46. “Almost everyone is overconfident--except the people who are depressed, and they tend to be realists.” - Joseph T. Hallinan

47. “Always Remember to take your Vitamins: Take your Vitamin A for ACTION, Vitamin B for Belief, Vitamin C for Confidence ,Vitamin D for Discipline, Vitamin E for Enthusiasm!!” - Pablo

48. “There is nothing left but the attempt and not trying is the same as failing.” - Mark Miller

49. “Please do make your decisions in life and feel confident that they are right.However, if fate is involved, feel just as confident even if they aren’t.” - C. Elizabeth

50. “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

51. “The God I believe in believes in me and won’t silence my heart or others based on a paycheck at the end of the day.” - Shannon Alder

52. “Self-belief, also called self-efficacy, is the kind of feeling you have when you have, like a Jedi, mastered a particular kind of skill and with its help have been able to achieve your set goals.” - Stephen Richards

53. “Humans, unlike Jedi, are powerfully afraid of rejection. We do not survive well alone, so humans as a species are especially vulnerable to thoughts that make us afraid the rest of the “tribe” will desert us to die a sad, lonely death.” - Stephen Richards

54. “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

55. “Once you feel nice about yourself, you have planted the first seed to develop self-confidence.” - Stephen Richards

56. “Gone are the days when 19-inch biceps would once command respect. A Jedi doesn’t walk around with their arms flexed and with a thousand yard stare in their eyes. They walk with a good posture, their head held high and with a serious, yet friendly, look on their face.” - Stephen Richards

57. “Concentrate more on your achievements than your failures. Learn to take the failures as opportunities to rectify your errors.” - Stephen Richards

58. “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

59. “Jedi are always assessing situations, actions and possibilities. Jedi don’t just think outside of the box with the help from the Force, they also adapt to situations outside of the box!” - Stephen Richards

60. “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

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

62. “Don’t be surprised by your greatness. Be surprised that no one expected it.” - Rebecca Maizel

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

64. “The older you get, the more you understand how your conscience works. The biggest and only critic lives in your perception of people's perception of you rather than people's perception of you.” - Criss Jami

65. “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

66. “Confidence comes from what you know and not from you don't know.” - Abdulkadir Abdullahi Mohamed Mirre

67. “We don’t need self-confidence we need God-confidence” - Joyce Meyer

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

69. “Confidence is like a dragon where, for every head cut off, two more heads grow back.” - Criss Jami

70. “The better you feel about yourself, the less you feel the need to show off.” - Robert Hand

71. “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

72. “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

73. “Nothing builds confidence like live ammo.” - Tim Dorsey

74. “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

75. “Beethoven said that it's better to hit the wrong note confidently, than hit the right note unconfidently. Never be afraid to be wrong or to embarrass yourself; we are all students in this life, and there is always something more to learn.” - Mike Norton

76. “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

77. “If you don't feel you have any choice in a situation, self-esteem and confidence plummet. But once you understand that you do have a choice, self-esteem will improve. You aren't a helpless victim anymore. You decide how you deal with a situation. You aren't just reacting to life; you're creating your life.” - Theresa Francis-Cheung

78. “If you have confidence you have patience. Confidence, that is everything.” - Ilie Nastase

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

80. “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

81. “Health is the greatest possession. Contentment is the greatest treasure. Confidence is the greatest friend.” - Lao Tzu

82. “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

83. “If you want your prayers answered, get up off your knees and do something about them.” - Wally Lamb

84. “The truth is that you are innately good, wise, and powerful. You were created in and for good.” - Deborah Day

85. “My face seems too square and my eyes too big, like I'm perpetually surprised, but there's nothing wrong with me that I can fix.” - David Levithan

86. “That’s the key, you know, confidence. I know for a fact that if you genuinely like your body, so can others. It doesn’t really matter if it’s short, tall, fat or thin, it just matters that you can find some things to like about it. Even if that means having a good laugh at the bits of it that wobble independently, occasionally, that’s all right. It might take you a while to believe me on this one, lots of people don’t because they seem to suffer from self-hatred that precludes them from imagining that a big woman could ever love herself because they don’t. But I do. I know what I’ve got is a bit strange and difficult to love but those are the very aspects that I love the most! It’s a bit like people. I’ve never been particularly attracted to the uniform of conventional beauty. I’m always a bit suspicious of people who feel compelled to conform. I personally like the adventure of difference. And what’s beauty, anyway?” - Dawn French

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

88. “It’s well to have such a comfortable assurance regarding the worth of those we love. I only wish you may not find your confidence misplaced.” - Anne Brontë

89. “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

90. “There are times when I'm caught up in everything and I have to say to myself, "Please feel good; please feel better; everything's okay; you're fine; things aren't falling apart; take a second; get back to a place where you realize that you don't actually have real problems." That happens. You never know when those tables are gonna turn... For me, confidence is something that can come crashing down in one second.” - Taylor Swift

91. “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

92. “Often people that settle in life are those that only do what they can with what they have and where they are. Never settle for someone that didn't know your worth from the beginning, or build a life without God in it. Live beyond your low expectations.” - Shannon L. Alder

93. “Confidence is providence” - Habeeb Akande

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

95. “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

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

97. “The only one that believes in you, is you. Don't lean on how others see you to find belief in yourself.” - Anthony Liccione

98. “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

99. “I know that I am not always right to the perception of some, but I am not daunted of being wrong. That's the effectiveness of confidence.” - Lionel Suggs

100. “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

101. “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

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

103. “Let your confidence reflect your contentedness.” - Criss Jami

104. “It is easy to tell confidence from pride. Confidence lifts, encourages, helps, and is full of gratitude. Pride demeans, mocks, destroys, and is bitter and resentful.” - Damon Throop

105. “I do not wish to travel around the world. I already have the world trying to travel around me.” - Lionel Suggs

106. “The way you think about yourself determines your reality. You are not being hurt by the way people think about you. Many of those people are a reflection of how you think about yourself.” - Shannon L. Alder

107. “Elusive success is not the same as failure.” - Damon Throop

108. “There is nothing about you to be embarrassed about” - S.C. Stephens

109. “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

110. “See what I mean? Your confidence is so strong it’s obnoxious.” - Stacy Kramer

111. “The way you see people is the way you treat them, and the way you treat them is what they become.” - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

112. “Don't limit yourself to the skies when there is a whole galaxy out there.” - Bianca Frazier

113. “My message to you all is of hope, courage, and confidence.” - Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah

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

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

116. “His Highness was always confident in his statements, especially about what he viewed for the first time.” - Dejan Stojanovic

117. “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

118. “Confidence, is like a belt worn around the waist. Wear it too tight, you come off cocky and arrogant, wear it too loose, you come off timid and a walk over, but wear it fit and snug, it will uphold you in every step of the way.” - Anthony Liccione

119. “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

120. “Confidence is a magnet to success.” - E'yen A. Gardner

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

122. “You crave winning and fear losing instead of just doing. To succeed you must remove your self-imposed limitations.” - Wayne Gerard Trotman

123. “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

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

125. “One of the most powerful lessons in life is to recognize that no one can give you power, and many people don’t want you to have it. You have to find the courage to seize it, own it and hold on!” - Shannon L. Alder

126. “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

127. “And my dream for you..........., is that you'll catch a glimpse of what I love so much about fashion: It's boldness and creativity, the confidence that it takes to stand before a camera and let your image be captured, even though you aren't perfect, the peace to be truly okay with how others see you.” - Lauren Scruggs

128. “To visualize that which doesn't exist, yet to believe with confidence that it can be realized, is truly something miraculous.” - Richard Sagor

129. “I replied that I did not quite know what my ailment had been, but that I had certainly suffered a good deal especially in mind. Further, on this subject, I did not consider it advisable to dwell, for the details of what I had undergone belonged to a portion of my existence in which I never expected my godmother to take a share. Into what a new region would such a confidence have led that hale, serene nature! The difference between her and me might be figured by that between the stately ship cruising safe on smooth seas, with its full complement of crew, a captain gay and brave, and venturous and provident; and the life-boat, which most days of the year lies dry and solitary in an old, dark boat-house, only putting to sea when the billows run high in rough weather, when cloud encounters water, when danger and death divide between them the rule of the great deep. No, the "Louisa Bretton" never was out of harbour on such a night, and in such a scene: her crew could not conceive it; so the half-drowned life-boat man keeps his own counsel, and spins no yarns.” - Charlotte Brontë

130. “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

131. “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

132. “Even painfully shy and awkward people are not painfully shy or awkward when they are alone. The way to access this natural, comfortable alone-self when you are with others is by choosing to forbid yourself to wonder what "they" are thinking. Instead, force yourself to exist in the instant, then take it- and give it- as it comes.” - Augusten Burroughs

133. “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

134. “Yes, I'm a man and everyone knows men are great hairy beasts scarcely tamed by civilization-Jermyn, Duke of Northcliff to Amy, Princess Beaumontaigne” - Christina Dodd

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

136. “People who repeatedly attack your confidence and self-esteem are quite aware of your potential, even if you are not.” - Wayne Gerard Trotman

137. “So many people along the way,whatever it is you aspire to do, will tell you it can't be done. But it all it takes is imagination. You dream. You plan. You reach. There will be obstacles. There will doubters. There will be mistakes. But with hard work, with belief, with confidence and trust in yourself and those around you, there no limits,” - Micheal Phelps

138. “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

139. “If there's any guy crazy enough to attack me, I'm going to show him the end of the world -- close up. I'm going to let him see the kingdom come with his own eyes. I'm going to send him straight to the southern hemisphere and let the ashes of death rain all over him and the kangaroos and the wallabies.” - Haruki Murakami

140. “Confidence is sexy!” - Tracy Allen

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

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

143. “A worm of fear wriggled in Jaden’s stomach, and the ethereal assuredness he channeled moments before evaporated as the worm burrowed deeper. When he next spoke, his own voice of trapped hysteria broke through, the worm having reached journey’s end.” - Courtney Kirchoff

144. “Successful continual learning means maintaining a balance and variety of success-oriented attributes, the most prominent being awareness, confidence, persistence, determination, courage, and focus. But curiosity, ingenuity, and creativity may be even more important as it is these traits that fuel the desire to continue to question and challenge the status quo.” - Lorii Myers