Building self-confidence is a powerful step toward achieving your goals and embracing your true potential. Sometimes, all it takes is a few uplifting words to spark that inner belief. In this collection, you'll find 80 inspiring quotes carefully selected to boost your self-esteem, motivate positive thinking, and encourage you to stand tall in any situation. Whether you need a gentle reminder or a bold affirmation, these quotes are here to inspire and empower you on your journey to greater confidence.
1. “Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experience that reveals the human spirit” - E.E. Cummings
2. “We can say that Muad'Dib learned rapidly because his first training was in how to learn. And the first lesson of all was the basic trust that he could learn.” - Frank Herbert
3. “Believe you can and you're halfway there.” - Theodore Roosevelt
4. “And I know I can do this because I went to London on my own, and because I solved the mystery…and I was brave and I wrote a book and that means I can do anything.” - Mark Haddon
5. “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
6. “Success is most often achieved by those who don't know that failure is inevitable.” - Coco Chanel
7. “Oh, Mona, we're all damned fools! Some of us just have more fun with it than others. Loosen up, dear! Don't be so afraid to cry . . . or laugh, for that matter. Laugh all you want and cry all you want and whistle at pretty men in the street and to hell with anybody who thinks you're a damned fool!” - Armistead Maupin
8. “Life is ten percent what you experience and ninety percent how you respond to it.” - Dorothy M. Neddermeyer
9. “Blackadder was fifty-four and had come to editing Ash out of pique. He was the son and grandson of Scottish schoolmasters. His grandfather recited poetry on firelight evenings: Marmion, Childe Harold, Ragnarok. His father sent him to Downing College in Cambridge to study under F. R. Leavis. Leavis did to Blackadder what he did to serious students; he showed him the terrible, the magnificent importance and urgency of English literature and simultaneously deprived him of any confidence in his own capacity to contribute to, or change it. The young Blackadder wrote poems, imagined Dr Leavis’s comments on them, and burned them.” - A.S. Byatt
10. “Anya looked upon Nin admirably. Having him as a partner-in-crime—if only on this one occasion, which she hoped would only be the start of something more—was more revitalizing than the cheap thrills of a cookie-cutter shallow, superficial romance, where the top priority was how beautiful a person was on the outside.” - Jess C. Scott
11. “Fear defeats more people than any other one thing in the world.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
12. “I'm not insecure. I've been through way too much f**king sh*t to be insecure. I've got huge balls. But I've been humbled. That makes you grateful for every day you have.” - Drew Barrymore
13. “Her grandmother had once told her that one of life's best lessons was not being afraid to look foolish -- to just ask the question.” - Melissa Senate
14. “The key to life is accepting challenges. Once someone stops doing this, he's dead.” - Bette Davis
15. “What the mind can conceive and believe, and the heart desire, you can achieve.” - Norman Vincent Peale
16. “At every given moment we are absolutely perfect for what is required for our journey.” - Steve Maraboli
17. “In the darkest hours we must believe in ourselves.” - Terry Goodkind
18. “If I hadn't lost my hearing, I wouldn't be where I am now. It forced me to maximize my own potential. I have to be better than the average person to succeed.” - Lou Ferrigno
19. “IF YOU CHOKE YOUR POTENTIAL BEFORE IT HAS AN OPPORTUNITY TO BECOME A POSSIBILITY YOU WILL NEVER REACH YOUR DESTINY” - Mo Stegall
20. “I do not believe in taking the right decision, I take a decision and make it right.” - Muhammad Ali Jinnah
21. “The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.” - Sylvia Plath
22. “You're gorgeous, you old hag, and if I could give you just one gift ever for the rest of your life it would be this. Confidence. It would be the gift of confidence. Either that or a scented candle” - David Nicholls
23. “Why should I care what other people think of me? I am who I am. And who I wanna be.” - Avril Lavigne
24. “Being comfortable with who you are is the ultimate threat!----You Killed Wesley Payne” - Sean Beaudoin
25. “The attacks of 9/11 were the biggest surprise in American history, and for the past ten years we haven't stopped being surprised. The war on terror has had no discernible trajectory, and, unlike other military conflicts, it's almost impossible to define victory. You can't document the war's progress on a world map or chart it on a historical timetable in a way that makes any sense. A country used to a feeling of being in command and control has been whipsawed into a state of perpetual reaction, swinging wildly between passive fear and fevered, often thoughtless, activity, at a high cost to its self-confidence.” - George Packer
26. “I never had any doubts about my abilities. I knew I could write. I just had to figure out how to eat while doing this.[Cormac McCarthy's Venomous Fiction, New York Times, April 19, 1992]” - Cormac McCarthy
27. “I can see us, living in the woods, her wearing that A, me with a S maybe, S for silent, S for stupid, for scared. S for silly. For shame.” - Laurie Halse Anderson
28. “When our feet talk to us, we listen.” - Alexander Nestoiter
29. “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
30. “Control Your Own Destiny or Someone Else Will” - Jack Welch
31. “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
32. “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
33. “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
34. “Tap into ‘The Force’ and soon, at any given time that you need that extra shot of high octane confidence; you will soon be like a Jedi Master at this technique.” - Stephen Richards
35. “Certain situations need a Jedi-like approach. One of these is when you are in a strange environment, usually where you feel unsure of yourself. You would be surprised how, if you walk with confidence and meaning, people will see this as a mark of confidence, yet you are perhaps shaking inside but outwardly you have the gait of a confident Jedi Knight.” - Stephen Richards
36. “Concentrate more on your achievements than your failures. Learn to take the failures as opportunities to rectify your errors.” - Stephen Richards
37. “The Jedi is a practitioner of mind mastery. He realizes that whatever they are experiencing, they are creating and that they can change their lives in an instant by changing their thoughts, their focus and the way they are observing and engaging the energy of the world around them and the people who they’ve invited into their lives to play whatever roles they’ve chosen them to play.” - Stephen Richards
38. “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
39. “There are two things essential if you want to enhance your Jedi self-confidence: 1/ belief that it is possible 2/ that self-help is the best help” - Stephen Richards
40. “I would rather be damned by my honesty, than caged by my lies.” - Omega Maverick
41. “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
42. “Do we take less pride in the possession of our home because its walls were built by some unknown carpenter, its tapestries woven by some unknown weaver on a far Oriental shore, in some antique time? No. We show our home to our friends with the pride as if it were our home, which it is. Why then should we take less pride when reading a book written by some long-dead author? Is it not our book just as much, or even more so, than theirs? So the landowner says, ‘Look at my beautiful home! Isn’t it fine?’ And not, ‘Look at the home so-and-so has built.’ Thus we shouldn’t cry, ‘Look what so-and-so has written. What a genius so-and-so is!’ But rather, ‘Look at what I have read! Am I not a genius? Have I not invented these pages? The walls of this universe, did I not build? The souls of these characters, did I not weave?” - Roman Payne
43. “Try giving up all the thoughts that make you feel bad, or even just some of them, and see how doing that changes your life. You don't need negative thoughts. All they have ever given you was a false self that suffers. They are all lies.” - Gina Lake
44. “Keeping busy and making optimism a way of life can restore your faith in yourself.” - Lucille Ball
45. “Suddenly I register that St. Clair is shorter than Josh. Much shorter. It’s odd I didn’t notice earlier, but he doesn’t carry himself like a short guy. Most are shy or defensive, or some messed-up combination of the two, but St. Clair is confident and friendly and—” - Stephanie Perkins
46. “Don't waste your energy trying to change opinions ... Do your thing, and don't care if they like it.” - Tina Fey
47. “What makes you think that I give a shit about your self-confidence?” - Toba Beta
48. “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
49. “Believe in yourself up here and it will make you stronger than you could ever imagine.” - Sarah Dessen
50. “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
51. “To us — richer and cleverer than everyone else!” - Scott Lynch
52. “The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease for ever to be able to do it.” - J. M. Barrie
53. “Одинок полетСветлячка в ночи.Но в небе - звезды."В чем же смысл интуитивно возникшего во мне трехстишья? Человек - одинокий светлячок в бескрайнем мраке ночи. Свет его так слаб, что освещает лишь крошечный кусочек пространства, а вокруг лишь холод, тьма и страх. Но если отвести испуганный взгляд от находящейся внизу темной земли и посмотреть ввысь (всего-то и надо - повернуть голову!), то увидишь, что небо покрыто звездами. Они сияют ровным, ярким и вечным светом. Звезды - твои друзья, они помогут и не бросят в беде. А чуть позже ты понимаешь другое, не менее важное: светлячок - тоже звезда, такая же, как все остальные. Те, что в небе, тоже видят твой свет, и он помогает им вынести холод и мрак Вселенной. Наверное, моя жизнь не изменится. Я буду такой же, как прежде, - и суетный, и вздорный, и подверженный страстям. Но в глубине моей души будет жить достоверное знание. Оно спасет и поддержит меня в трудную минуту. Я больше не мелкая лужа, которую может расплескать по земле сильный порыв ветра. Я - океан, и буря, прокатившись всесокрушающим цунами по моей поверхности, не затронет сокровенных моих глубин.” - Boris Akunin
54. “practice only envisioning yourself at the finish line and be unrelenting and fervent in racing towards that finish line. Undue preoccupation and fixation with the how's, whens, and what ifs will not only derail and further distance you from your destination, but will also feed your mind with those fatal seeds of doubt that make failure inevitable" ~ Awaken and Unleash your Victor” - Ogor Winnie Okoye
55. “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
56. “How we love others is affected by how we love ourselves, and for the first time in a long time, I was whole.” - Richelle Mead
57. “the sight of me is good for sore eyes” - Charles Dickens
58. “Sometimes our Biggest Nightmare turns out to be our Biggest Gift. And it all comes down to our attitude. Life will throw us curve balls and disappointments, even heartbreak. But ultimately we can choose if we're going to be Bitter or Better for the experience.” - Kathryn Orford
59. “Bite them before they Bite you.” - Annomynous
60. “Learn to be brave and adventurous because you’ll never discover your place in the world, if you’re too afraid to leave your own backyard.” - Nina Guilbeau
61. “Self-assurance reassures others.” - Garry Willis
62. “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
63. “Envy comes from people’s ignorance of, or lack of belief, in their own gifts.” - Jean Vanier
64. “The beauty on the inside, will determine the ugly on the outside.” - Anthony Liccione
65. “Piper had a new entry in her top-ten list of Times Piper Felt Useless. Fighting Shrimpzilla with a dagger and a pretty voice? Not so effective.” - Rick Riordan
66. “So I'll do that, and I'll do my best and if my best isn't good enough, at least I will have done everything I could, everything that is in me. I don't have to try to be someone else, someone I could never be.” - Garth Nix
67. “My self-confidence can be measured out in teaspoons mixed into my poetry, and it still always tastes funny in my mouth.” - Sarah Kay
68. “Learning is a matter of gathering knowledge; wisdom is applying that knowledge.” - Dr Roopleen
69. “Attitude is that little thing that will make the most difference in the accomplishment of your goals.” - Dr Roopleen
70. “Celebrating your achievements and applauding your triumphs is a sure way to refuel your enthusiasm and keep yourself motivated for your future endeavours.” - Dr Roopleen
71. “The power we discover inside ourselves as we survive a life-threatening experience can be utilized equally well outside of crisis, too. I am, in every moment, capable of mustering the strength to survive again—or of tapping that strength in other good, productive, healthy ways.” - Michele Rosenthal
72. “Stop spending so much time trying to prove what you already know to people who don't really matter. It just makes you look insecure and lacking self-confidence.” - Karen E. Quinones Miller
73. “The most important point to remember in developing self-confidence is to take responsibility for who we are. This empowers us. We can change anything, do anything, and be anything when we assume full responsibility for ourselves.” - Rachael Bermingham
74. “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
75. “People who repeatedly attack your confidence and self-esteem are quite aware of your potential, even if you are not.” - Wayne Gerard Trotman
76. “Life has enough torturers as it is, without you going around moonlighting as a Grand Inquisitor against yourself.” - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
77. “Great change doesn't come with official endorsement.” - Patti Digh
78. “Protect your self-esteem and self-confidence - it is your responsibility!” - Mark O'Brien
79. “What about thinking of happiness as a right instead than as a gift?” - Rossana Condoleo
80. “How was I able to live alone before, my little everything? Without you I lack self-confidence, passion for work, and enjoyment of life--in short, without you, my life is no life.[Written to his wife, Mileva]” - Albert Einstein
