Oftentimes, we can be our own worst critic. We look at ourselves through an unfair and unflattering lens, focusing on the flaws and ignoring our positive traits. As a result, many people suffer from low self-esteem. Studies have shown that with low self-esteem, people are more at risk for increased anxiety and depression. While it’s not always easy to overcome feelings of low self-esteem, one of the best ways is to show yourself some self-love.
It’s all too easy to fall into trap of being overly critical of yourself. Whenever those feelings start to creep into your mind, turn to self-love quotes for some needed inspiration. Short self-love quotes can improve your mood quickly, while more in-depth ones can get you to think hard about how you view yourself. Before you get too down on yourself, check out the following self-love quotes.
Quotes on Self-Love to Lift You Up
1. “As I began to love myself I stopped craving for a different life, and I could see that everything that surrounded me was inviting me to grow.” —Charlie Chaplin
2. “Love is the absence of judgment.” —Dhali Lama
3. “I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live up to what light I have.” —Abraham Lincoln
4. “Fall in love with yourself, then with life, then with whoever you want.” —Frida Kahlo
5. “When I loved myself enough, I began leaving whatever wasn’t healthy. This meant people, jobs, my own beliefs and habits–anything that kept me small. My judgement called it disloyal. Now I see it as self-loving.” —Kim McMillen
6. “Everyone of us needs to show how much we care for each other and, in the process, care for ourselves.” —Princess Diana
7. “How you love yourself is how you teach others to love you.” —Rupi Kaur
8. “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.” —Henry Thoreau
9. “No other love no matter how genuine it is, can fulfill one’s heart better than unconditional self-love.” —Edmond Mbiaka
10. “I was once afraid of people saying ‘Who does she think she is?’ Now I have the courage to stand and say, ‘This is who I am.'” —Oprah Winfrey
11. “Knowing how to be solitary is central to the art of loving. When we can be alone, we can be with others without using them as a means of escape.” ―Bell Hooks
12. “I am sure of myself as a person. I am sure of my talent. I’m sure of my love for life and that sort of thing. I am very content, I like the kind of person that I am.” —Dolly Parton
13. “Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.” —J.K. Rowling
14. “Never give up on anyone. And that includes not giving up on yourself.” —Dieter F. Uchtdorf
15. “You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.” —Buddha
16. “Today you are you! That is truer than true! There is no one alive who is you-er than you! Shout loud, ‘I am lucky to be what I am!…’” —Dr. Seuss
17. “When we fulfill our function, which is to truly love ourselves and share love with others, then true happiness sets in.” —Gabrielle Bernstein
18. “The hardest challenge is to be yourself in a world where everyone is trying to make you be somebody else.” —E.E Cummings
19. “Follow your passion. Stay true to yourself. Never follow someone else’s path unless you’re in the woods and you’re lost and you see a path. By all means, you should follow that.” —Ellen DeGeneres
20. “Low self-esteem is like driving through life with your handbrake on.” —Maxwell Maltz
21. “I believe self-love is a by-product of integrity. Living true to your values—whether you feel like it or not.” —Patricia Moreno
22. “If you have the ability to love, love yourself first.” —Charles Bukowski
23. “And you thought beauty was the outward show—but now you know the truth, my love—it’s always been the inner fire.” —John Geddes
24. “In stressful times, it’s okay to not be perfect. Cut yourself some slack. Because right now, you might not be your best self, but you are growing and you are trying your best. And that is good enough.” —Ashley Hetherington
25. “I was looking for someone to inspire me, support me, keep me focused. Someone who would love me, cherish me, make me happy and I realized that all along I was looking for myself.” —Unknown
26. “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson
27. “Love is inside me. Other people might awaken it or threaten it, but as a capacity, it’s mine.” —Sharon Salzberg
28. “If you aren’t good at loving yourself, you will have a difficult time loving anyone, since you’ll resent the time and energy you give another person that you aren’t even giving to yourself.” —Barbara De Angelis
29. “Beauty begins the moment you decide to be yourself.” —Coco Chanel
30. “Remember, you have been criticizing yourself for years, and it hasn’t worked. Try approving of yourself and see what happens.” —Louise L. Hay
31. “Life is too short to spend it at war with yourself.” —Unknown
32. “Love yourself enough to let go of guilt, blame, shame, anger, fear, loss, worry. Anything that makes you feel sad.” —Karen Salmansohn
33. “You find peace not by rearranging the circumstances of your life, but by realizing who you are at the deepest level.” —Eckhart Tolle
34. “It’s all about falling in love with yourself and sharing that love with someone who appreciates you, rather than looking for love to compensate for a self-love deficit.” ―Eartha Kitt
35. “I am somebody. I am me. I like being me. And I need nobody to make me somebody.” —Louis L’Amour
36. “Put yourself first. Self-love is not selfish at all. It means that you’re taking care of yourself, and like my mom reinforced to me, to make sure that I was safe and that I was healthy.” —Laurie Hernandez
37. “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” —Eleanor Roosevelt
38. “I now see how owning our story and loving ourselves through that process is the bravest thing that we will ever do.” —Brené Brown
39. “Self love—it doesn’t mean that everyone will treat you the way you deserve to be treated. It means that you won’t let them change the way you see yourself; nor will you stick around for them to destroy you.” —Tony A. Gaskins Jr.
40. “Why are you trying so hard to fit in when you were born to stand out?” —Ian Wallace
41. “To love yourself right now, just as you are, is to give yourself heaven. Don’t wait until you die. If you wait, you die now. If you love, you live now.” —Alan Cohen
42. “I will not be another flower, picked for my beauty and left to die. I will be wild, difficult to find, and impossible to forget.” —Erin Van Vuren
43. “I think no matter what you look like, the key first of all is to be happy with yourself. And then you know if you want to improve things you don’t like about yourself, then do it after you appreciate yourself.” —Adele
44. “You are beautiful the moment you start to believe you are beautiful.” —Steve Harvey
45. “Embrace. Life comes with highs and lows. Don’t break your own heart by expecting things to be good all the time. Invite and embrace happy moments. Allow the bad to come and go. Move with the flow of life.” —Ash Alves
46. “I didn’t feel sad or happy. I didn’t feel proud or ashamed. I only felt that in spite of all the things I’d done wrong, in getting myself here, I’d done right.” —Cheryl Strayed
47. “My mission, should I choose to accept it, is to find peace with exactly who and what I am. To take pride in my thoughts, my appearance, my talents, my flaws and to stop this incessant worrying that I can’t be loved as I am.” ―Anaïs Nin
48. “If you’re not someone who has a natural and effortless love for yourself, it’s hard to let go of your desire to please other people, and that’s really not an ingredient for a happy life.” —Anne Hathaway
49. “Be the love you never received.” —Rune Lazuli
50. “You get the benefits of both giving and receiving compassion when you offer it to yourself.” —Rick Hanson
51. “The same light you see in others is shining within you, too.” —Morgan Harper Nichols
52. “It took me a long time to love myself, years actually. With that being said, you either like me or you don’t. I have no time to try and convince anyone to value all that I am.” —Daniel Franzese
53. “A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.” —Mark Twain
54. “Nobody is perfect. I just don’t believe in perfection. But I do believe in saying, ‘This is who I am and look at me not being perfect!’ I’m proud of that.” —Kate Winslet
55. “To love oneself is the beginning of a life-long romance.” —Oscar Wilde
56. “Less perfection-chasing. More self-trust.” —Robyn Conley Downs
57. “It’s really about changing the conversation. It’s not about perfection. It’s about purpose. We have to care about our bodies and what we put in them. Women have to take the time to focus on our mental health—take time for self, for the spiritual, without feeling guilty or selfish. The world will see you the way you see you and treat you the way you treat yourself.” —Beyoncé
58. “When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare or compete, everyone will respect you.” —Lao Tzu
59. “I just wanted to remind you, in case you needed to hear it, to be kind and loving to yourself, and talk to yourself like you would talk to your best friend.” —Camila Cabello
60. “Breathe darling, this is just a chapter. It’s not your whole story.” —S.C. Laurie
61. I am my own universe; a galaxy; a solar system. I am the warm-up act, the main event, and the backing singers. And if this is it, if this is all there is- just me and the trees and the sky and the seas- I know now that that’s enough.” —Dolly Alderton
62. “Don’t allow yourself to think that toxic love is the best love you can ever have.” —Khalilah Velez
63. “When you take care of yourself, you’re a better person for others. When you feel good about yourself, you treat others better.” —Solange Knowles
64. “You have to believe in yourself when no one else does – that makes you a winner right here.” —Venus Williams
65. “Document the moments you feel most in love with yourself — what you’re wearing, who you’re around, what you’re doing. Recreate and repeat.” —Warsan Shire
66. “Don’t worry if people think you’re crazy. You are crazy. You have that kind of intoxicating insanity that lets other people dream outside of the lines and become who they’re destined to be.” ―Jennifer Elisabeth
67. “Find the love you seek, by first finding the love within yourself. Learn to rest in that place within you that is your true home.” —Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
68. “Know your worth. You must find the courage to leave the table if respect is no longer being served.” —Tene Edwards
69. “Find out who you are and do it on purpose.” —Dolly Parton
70. “Love yourself first and everything else falls into line. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world.” —Lucille Ball
71. “You’re always with yourself, so you might as well enjoy the company.” —Diane von Furstenberg
72. “This self-love is the instrument of our preservation; it resembles the provision for the perpetuity of mankind: it is necessary, it is dear to us, it gives us pleasure, and we must conceal it.” —Voltaire
73. “I’ve finally stopped running away from myself. Who else is there better to be?” —Goldie Hawn
74. “If we all did the things we are capable of doing we would literally astound ourselves.” —Thomas Edison
75. “Once you’ve accepted your flaws, no one can use them against you.” —George R.R. Martin
76. “People who love themselves, don’t hurt other people. The more we hate ourselves, the more we want others to suffer.” —Dan Pearce
77. “Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are.” —Malcolm S. Forbes
78. “If only you could sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to people you may never even dream of. There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person.” —Fred Rodgers
79. “It took me a long time not to judge myself through someone else’s eyes.” —Sally Field
80. “You deserve someone who makes you feel like the otherworldly creature you are. Yourself.” —Amanda Lovelace
81. “So plant your own garden and water your soul, instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers.” —Jorge Luis Borges
82. “Do not tame the wolf inside just because you’ve met someone who doesn’t have the courage to handle you.” —Belle Estreller
83. “One of the most important things you can accomplish is just being yourself.” —Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson
84. “This life is mine alone. So, I have stopped asking people for directions to places they’ve never been.” —Glennon Doyle
85. “Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.” —Buddha
Practice Self-Love by Building Self-Esteem
Now that you’ve gotten a bit of a boost from these helpful “learning to love yourself” quotes, you can get started on other ways to build your self-esteem. You might try going out of your way to compliment others. Or you could take some time for yourself, such as with a vacation or hiking trip. These are just a few suggestions that you can learn about in the following article.