74 Inspiring Self-Worth Quotes

In a world where external validations often overshadow personal reflections, nurturing self-worth becomes essential for a balanced and fulfilling life. It can be easy to overlook our intrinsic value amid life's chaos, but recognizing and embracing our self-worth is key to personal growth and happiness. This collection of 74 inspiring self-worth quotes has been curated to uplift and empower, serving as daily reminders of your inherent value and strength. Whether you seek motivation or simply a moment of reflection, these quotes aim to spark a deeper appreciation for yourself, encouraging a journey of self-discovery and acceptance.

1. “My hands tend to be full enough dealing with people who hate me for who I am. Concentrate too hard on the millions of people who hate you for what you are and you're likely to turn into one of those unkempt, sloppy dressers who sag beneath the weight of the two hundred political buttons they wear pinned to their coats and knapsacks.” - David Sedaris

2. “I was used to sleeping with people because I endlessly found myself in identical situations where it was easier to just fuck them than to say no.” - Marya Hornbacher

3. “If you wish to achieve worthwhile things in your personal and career life, you must become a worthwhile person in your own self-development.” - Brian Tracy

4. “It is difficult to make a man miserable while he feels worthy of himself and claims kindred to the great God who made him.” - Abraham Lincoln

5. “You cannot be lonely if you like the person you're alone with.” - Wayne W. Dyer

6. “Speed eliminates all doubt. Am I smart enough? Will people like me? Do I really look all right in this plastic jumpsuit?” - David Sedaris

7. “For all those who longed to find a best friend and found it in themselves” - Sandra Kring

8. “There is nothing so rewarding as to make people realize that they are worthwhile in this world.” - Bob Anderson

9. “I have no right to say or do anything that diminishes a man in his own eyes. What matters is not what I think of him but what he thinks of himself. Hurting a man in his dignity is a crime.” - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

10. “I don't want to see anyone. I lie in the bedroom with the curtains drawn and nothingness washing over me like a sluggish wave. Whatever is happening to me is my own fault. I have done something wrong, something so huge I can't even see it, something that's drowning me. I am inadequate and stupid, without worth. I might as well be dead.” - Margaret Atwood

11. “Nakalimutan na ng tao ang kabanalan n'ya, na mas marami pa s'yang alam kesa sa nakasulat sa Transcript of Records n'ya, mas marami pa s'yang kayang gawin kesa sa nakalista sa resume n'ya, at mas mataas ang halaga n'ya kesa sa presyong nakasulat sa payslip n'ya tuwing sweldo. ” - Bob Ong

12. “We cannot think of being acceptable to others until we have first proven acceptable to ourselves.” - Malcolm X

13. “Sometimes the hardest part of the journey is believing you're worthy of the trip.” - Glenn Beck

14. “Nothing was a more powerful compass of my mood or a better indication of my self-worth than the number on the scale.” - Betsy Lerner

15. “A person's value is attached to a variable exponent.” - David Bajo

16. “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

17. “Self-talk reflects your innermost feelings.” - Dr. Asa Don Brown

18. “Richard didn't even have time to ask if I thought I'd ever amount to anything in this life before I looked him eye to eye and said, "I already have, mister.” - Elizabeth Gilbert

19. “You can't own a human being. You can't lose what you don't own. Suppose you did own him. Could you really love somebody who was absolutely nobody without you? You really want somebody like that? Somebody who falls apart when you walk out the door? You don't, do you? And neither does he. You're turning over your whole life to him. Your whole life, girl. And if it means so little to you that you can just give it away, hand it to him, then why should it mean any more to him? He can't value you more than you value yourself.” - Toni Morrison

20. “Let's tell the truth to people. When people ask, 'How are you?' have the nerve sometimes to answer truthfully. You must know, however, that people will start avoiding you because, they, too, have knees that pain them and heads that hurt and they don't want to know about yours. But think of it this way: If people avoid you, you will have more time to meditate and do fine research on a cure for whatever truly afflicts you.” - Maya Angelou

21. “Suddenly I grasped what was happening- they were all trying to save me. I never thought I was worth saving.” - Albert Borris

22. “Most lives are not distinguished by great achievements. They are measured by an infinite number of small ones. Each time you do a kindness for someone or bring a smile to his face, it gives your life meaning. Never doubt your value, little friend. The world would be a dismal place without you in it. (tweaked version of a passage from Scandal in Spring)” - Lisa Kleypas

23. “I have realized; it is during the times I am far outside my element that I experience myself the most. That I see and feel who I really am, the most! I think that's what a comet is like, you see, a comet is born in the outer realms of the universe! But it's only when it ventures too close to our sun or to other stars that it releases the blazing "tail" behind it and shoots brazen through the heavens! And meteors become sucked into our atmosphere before they burst like firecrackers and realize that they're shooting stars! That's why I enjoy taking myself out of my own element, my own comfort zone, and hurling myself out into the unknown. Because it's during those scary moments, those unsure steps taken, that I am able to see that I'm like a comet hitting a new atmosphere: suddenly I illuminate magnificently and fire dusts begin to fall off of me! I discover a smile I didn't know I had, I uncover a feeling that I didn't know existed in me... I see myself. I'm a shooting star. A meteor shower. But I'm not going to die out. I guess I'm more like a comet then. I'm just going to keep on coming back.” - C. JoyBell C.

24. “You can be the most beautiful person in the world and everybody sees light and rainbows when they look at you, but if you yourself don't know it, all of that doesn't even matter. Every second that you spend on doubting your worth, every moment that you use to criticize yourself; is a second of your life wasted, is a moment of your life thrown away. It's not like you have forever, so don't waste any of your seconds, don't throw even one of your moments away.” - C. JoyBell C.

25. “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

26. “I will not be "famous," "great." I will go on adventuring, changing, opening my mind and my eyes, refusing to be stamped and stereotyped. The thing is to free one's self: to let it find its dimensions, not be impeded.” - Virginia Woolf

27. “Life is too short to waste any amount of time on wondering what other people think about you. In the first place, if they had better things going on in their lives, they wouldn't have the time to sit around and talk about you. What's important to me is not others' opinions of me, but what's important to me is my opinion of myself.” - C. JoyBell C.

28. “A diamond doesn't start out polished and shining. It once was nothing special, but with enough pressure and time, becomes spectacular. I'm that diamond.” - Solange nicole

29. “Every job from the heart is, ultimately, of equal value. The nurse injects the syringe; the writer slides the pen; the farmer plows the dirt; the comedian draws the laughter. Monetary income is the perfect deceiver of a man's true worth.” - Criss Jami

30. “The most destructive thing we can possibly do in life is to make another person doubt his worth and identity as a child of God. The very most productive thing we can do is to help ourselves and others realize that as children of God, our worth is infinite.” - Toni Sorenson

31. “Big don't mean ugly, and thin sho don't mean pretty. If a person wants to be pretty, they gotta walk pretty, talk pretty and act pretty. Can't nobody take pretty from you.” - Daniel Black

32. “Stagnation is self-abdication.” - Ryan Talbot

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

34. “If Cinderella were given a single shining epiphany (instead of a fairy godmother), she would have realized: "This is my father's house. This is my father's estate. I am the rightful heiress to everything here!" then she would have said: "Get off of my property, take nothing with you, and never show your faces to me again! You ugly, bitter, insecure, envious witches!" And I'm sure she would have been happier, sooner!” - C. JoyBell C.

35. “Never let the opinion of another affect your opinion of yourself.” - Teresa Mummert

36. “But the coconut is also a symbol of resilience, Samar. Even in the conditions where there's very little nourishment and even less nurturance, it flourishes, growing taller than most of the plants around it.” - Neesha Meminger

37. “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

38. “You've got to say what you mean and mean what you say...Doubt in your voice is an open door people will shove right through.” - Deb Caletti

39. “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

40. “We're always taught that God wants us to always only say "I can't do this without You God" , "Whatever your will is God, that's my will too" but God says He is a father, and there is no good father who wants his children to have no will and to think that they can't stand on their own two feet. So maybe what you should be saying is "I can do it" and "I have a strong will, I know what I want." When you think God's left you and wants you to be sitting like a duck, maybe He's actually believing in you, teaching you how to fly.” - C. JoyBell C.

41. “You are not what others think you are. You are what God knows you are.” - Shannon Alder

42. “I am not a little bit of many things; but I am the sufficient representation of many things. I am not an incompletion of all these races; but I am a masterpiece of the prolific. I am an entirety, I am not a lack of anything; rather I am a whole of many things. God did not see it needful to make me generic. He thinks I am better than that.” - C. JoyBell C.

43. “Make a pledge to yourself right now, to declare that you are worth your time and energy.” - Deborah Day

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

45. “The boy and the man must be raised to see the possibility of self worth, then meet a few others who provide the vision of a road toward it, then spend a lifetime pursing that worth through action and relationship. One of the great tragedies in human life is to be born a male and not be guided toward the value of a man.” - Michael Gurian

46. “He doesn't need to be reminded you're great.” - Greg Behrendt

47. “Lord, when I feel that what I'm doing is insignificant and unimportant, help me to remember that everything I do is significant and important in your eyes, because you love me and you put me here, and no one else can do what I am doing in exactly the way I do it.” - Brennan Manning

48. “If you are stealing people's thunder just by being around and standing there; you really can't expect people to like you. People want their own thunder to be heard loud and wide, not yours! Swans should never despair over ducks not liking them.” - C. JoyBell C.

49. “The enemy uses those things your insecure about. Free yourself and take your power back by being secure in who you are - flaws and all.” - Yvonne Pierre

50. “I'm simply reminding you that you're worth more than what you'll find at the bottom of a bottle.” - Myra McEntire

51. “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

52. “Some of us are crèmes brûlées, unfortunately in the presence of those who would rather have corn dogs. We can try to degenerate into corn dogs to make them happy, or we can just accept the fact that we were made for Paris!” - C. JoyBell C.

53. “I didn't know I was really alive in this world until I felt things hard enough to kill for 'em...” - richard wright

54. “The beauty on the inside, will determine the ugly on the outside.” - Anthony Liccione

55. “I think that if you have a horse, pegasus, qilin, or unicorn, you should sit on it! You should stroke its hair, whisper in its ear, be one with it! And you shouldn't feel sorry if other people don't have one.” - C. JoyBell C.

56. “Are you what others say and think you are?  Or are you who you are regardless of what others say and think?” - Richelle E. Goodrich

57. “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?” - Hillel the Elder

58. “These is nothing divine about deprecating your gifts and talents or diminishing their worth in any way. Shining is sharing an abundance with us all.” - Tama Kieves

59. “Other people's heads are too wretched a place for true happiness to have its seat.” - Arthur Schopenhauer

60. “Will any man despise me? Let him see to it. But I will see to it that I may not be found doing or saying anything that deserves to be despised.” - Marcus Aurelius

61. “Mirrors are liars. They tell us what we expect to see.” - Susanna Fraser

62. “In an unfathomable expanse of universe supporting galaxies of star systems with orbiting planets innumerable, I am nothing.  And yet to the few bodies encircling my tiny little spot in the world, I am essential.” - Richelle E. Goodrich

63. “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

64. “Tell me what a person finds sexually attractive and I will tell you their entire philosophy of life. Show me the person they sleep with and I will tell you their valuation of themselves.” - Ayn Rand

65. “I know, now, without a doubt that the true source of happiness, self-worth, and authentic beauty doesn't come from the outside. Women are constantly being persuaded to want something unachievable, to look younger or thinner and above all to fit in because being different is too painful and embarassing. I have accepted myself in a world that does not accept me, because I have learned [ . . . ] that our hearts matter most... It's a beautiful heart, not a perfect body, that leads to a beautiful life.” - Stephanie Nielson

66. “Let me tell you something, honey. Fifty percent of life is others trying to push their own agenda on you—their belief system, their views, their convictions. The other fifty percent is you deciding whether or not you’re going to let them. Or if you’re going to form your own opinions.-Miss Velma” - Rachael Wade

67. “The eighth gift is Imagination. May it nourish your visions and dreams.” - Charlene Costanzo

68. “The tenth gift is Wisdom. Guiding your way, wisdom will lead you through knowledge to understanding. May you hear its soft voice.” - Charlene Costanzo

69. “The problem isn’t that I think so highly of myself. It is just that you think so little of yourself. Live life BIG, BOLD and OUT LOUD!” - Shannon L. Alder

70. “Staying silent is like a slow growing cancer to the soul and a trait of a true coward. There is nothing intelligent about not standing up for yourself. You may not win every battle. However, everyone will at least know what you stood for—YOU.” - Shannon L. Alder

71. “Every woman that finally figured out her worth, has picked up her suitcases of pride and boarded a flight to freedom, which landed in the valley of change.” - Shannon L. Alder

72. “What kind of world have we built when it is more acceptable to ask for sex than a cuddle session? … Have we so stripped our sexuality of inherent value that it becomes the sacrificial lamb on the altar of connection, because everything else is too precious to risk? I'm the first one to say that my body is an amusement park, and I like to have fun with it – and let other people ride it – but there is still a divinity in it. It is no less precious than our fears, our smiles, our hopes, our tears. And this goes not just for women, but for all people. I've known men and dominants who felt they could be vulnerable only during sex, and so they would ask for that instead of talking about what was bothering them, or even simply as a distraction from their own thoughts and troubles.” - Kacie Cunningham

73. “The whole world is not worth one soul.” - St. Francis de Sales

74. “Time is not a means to keep or prove your worth in the world, but a means to experience the richness of all that is.” - Elizabeth Grace Saunders