Understanding and embracing your self-worth is essential for leading a confident and fulfilling life. Quotes can serve as powerful reminders of our value and potential, offering inspiration and encouragement when we need it most. In this post, we've gathered a curated collection of the top 83 quotes on self-worth to uplift your spirit and help you recognize the incredible person you are. Whether you need a little motivation or a fresh perspective, these words of wisdom are here to guide and empower you.
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. “If a man thinks he is not conceited, he is very conceited indeed.” - C.S. Lewis
3. “Sometimes, I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company? It’s beyond me.” - Zora Neale Hurston
4. “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
5. “Never forget that once upon a time, in an unguarded moment, you recognized yourself as a friend.” - Elizabeth Gilbert
6. “You cannot be lonely if you like the person you're alone with.” - Wayne W. Dyer
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. “And, above all things, never think that you're not good enough yourself. A man should never think that. My belief is that in life people will take you very much at your own reckoning.” - Anthony Trollope
11. “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
12. “I never felt like that before. Maybe it could be depression, like you get. I can understand how you suffer now when you're depressed; I always thought you liked it and I thought you could have snapped yourself out any time, if not alone then by means of the mood organ. But when you get that depressed you don't care. Apathy, because you've lost a sense of worth. It doesn't matter whether you feel better because you have no worth.” - Philip K. Dick
13. “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
14. “We cannot think of being acceptable to others until we have first proven acceptable to ourselves.” - Malcolm X
15. “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
16. “Self-talk reflects your innermost feelings.” - Dr. Asa Don Brown
17. “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
18. “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
19. “Suddenly I grasped what was happening- they were all trying to save me. I never thought I was worth saving.” - Albert Borris
20. “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
21. “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.
22. “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.
23. “But then Froi looked back to where his work lay unfinished and it made him sad because there had been something about the touch of earth in his hands that made him feel worthwhile.” - Melina Marchetta
24. “I have known friendship love, parental love, romantic love, family love and unrequited love in my life time, but the only love that made a difference was self love. You don't need confirmation from the world or another person that you matter. You simply do matter. When you finally believe that truth and live it then you can do amazing things with your life!” - Shannon Alder
25. “You matter, Mama repeated. Not because of whose son you are. Because of who you are. You're as important as every other human being that ever was or ever will be. Everyone matters.” - Kimberley Brubaker Bradley
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. “When you know that everything matters—that every move counts as much as any other—you will begin living a life of permanent purpose.” - Andy Andrews
36. “I hate the thought that I'm just some kind of Russian nesting doll with the big outside and inevitably, rattling around under all the layers, a crude little peg with a face is the truth of me.” - Wendy McClure
37. “Never let the opinion of another affect your opinion of yourself.” - Teresa Mummert
38. “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
39. “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
40. “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
41. “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.
42. “You are not what others think you are. You are what God knows you are.” - Shannon Alder
43. “Tis hard to live in a world where all look upon you as below them.” - James Fenimore Cooper
44. “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
45. “Make a pledge to yourself right now, to declare that you are worth your time and energy.” - Deborah Day
46. “The truth is that you are innately good, wise, and powerful. You were created in and for good.” - Deborah Day
47. “What I think is all I have left. My mind is the only thing that makes me different from a fancy toaster. What we think does matter-it's all we truly have.” - Mary E. Pearson
48. “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
49. “You are not easily forgotten.” - Greg Behrendt
50. “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.
51. “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
52. “I'm simply reminding you that you're worth more than what you'll find at the bottom of a bottle.” - Myra McEntire
53. “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
54. “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.
55. “The beauty on the inside, will determine the ugly on the outside.” - Anthony Liccione
56. “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
57. “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
58. “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
59. “I don't believe that. I don't believe that there are bad things about you. Only things that you think are bad.” - Jessica Sorensen
60. “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
61. “Aleksia laughed at her, putting a world of scorn and withering contempt into her voice--just as Kay would probably do in a temper. In fact, everything that she was doing now was to test her to see if her own self-worth was strong enough to stand up to the worst the one she loved could deliver. It is so much harder to take a hint of scorn from the beloved than a verbal battering from an enemy........Kay would always be more intelligent, more clever than Gerda was. She had to know, deep inside her, that what she offered was just as important and just as valuable as wit and intelligence.” - Mercedes Lackey
62. “Other people's heads are too wretched a place for true happiness to have its seat.” - Arthur Schopenhauer
63. “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
64. “Mirrors are liars. They tell us what we expect to see.” - Susanna Fraser
65. “Who would you impress if the world was blind?” - Shannon L. Alder
66. “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
67. “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
68. “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
69. “There's something AMAZING about you. You owe it to yourself to fulfill your destiny. You were put on earth for a reason. Don't betray yourself because of other people opinions of who you should be. God has already implanted within you who you MEANT to be. Trust your gut instincts.” - Yvonne Pierre
70. “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
71. “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
72. “Someday all the children of the world will learn the truth about their noble inheritance. When that happens, a miracle will unfold on the kingdom of Earth.” - Charlene Costanzo
73. “At the wondrous moment you were born, as you took your first breath, a great celebration was held in the heavens and twelve magnificent gifts were granted to you.” - Charlene Costanzo
74. “The eighth gift is Imagination. May it nourish your visions and dreams.” - Charlene Costanzo
75. “The ninth gift is Reverence. May you appreciate the wonder that you are and the miracle of all creation.” - Charlene Costanzo
76. “The tenth gift is Wisdom. Guiding your way, wisdom will lead you through knowledge to understanding. May you hear its soft voice.” - Charlene Costanzo
77. “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
78. “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
79. “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
80. “Society conspires against her from early infancy. Her brain is steadily filled with plaster until it sets: ‘If you’re not married by the time you’re twenty-five, you’ll have good reason to be ashamed’; ‘if you laugh, you won’t look dignified’ ; ‘if your face betrays your feelings, you’ll look coarse’; ‘if you mention the existence of a single body hair, you’re repulsive’ ; ‘if a boy kisses you on the cheek in public, you’re a whore’; if you enjoy eating, you’re a pig’; ‘if you take pleasure in sleeping, you’re no better than a cow’; and so on.These precepts would be merely anecdotal if they weren’t taken so much to heart.” - Amélie Nothomb
81. “The whole world is not worth one soul.” - St. Francis de Sales
82. “If you spend your time hoping someone will suffer the consequences for what they did to your heart, then you're allowing them to hurt you a second time in your mind.” - Shannon L. Alder
83. “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
