125 brilliant inspirational quotes on loving yourself (or self-love)

If you are looking for inspirational quotes about loving yourself or self-love, you have come to the right place. In this article, you can find a list of inspirational quotes on self-love, self-esteem, self-acceptance, and self-forgiveness.

What is self-love? 

Self-love is the love and acceptance for yourself even with all your flaws and shortcomings. 

Self-love is defined by yourdictionary.com as,

Self-love is the belief you hold that you are a valuable and worthy person. An example of self-love is when you have a positive view of yourself and are confident in yourself and your place in the world. 

And it is exactly a belief that so many of us lack. We find faults with ourselves and lament over it for a lifetime believing we are not worthy or we do not fit in.

I hopped onto the self-love journey recently and I admit it is tough to let go of so many old beliefs. But the attempt to love yourself and accept yourself for who you are is definitely worth it. Because if you don’t develop a sense of self-worth and belonging in this world, you never understand your value. You let everyone else determine your value and you never reach your maximum potential.

Reading inspirational quotes about self-love and self-worth have definitely helped me to shake old beliefs about myself.  Inspirational quotes open our eyes to someone else’s wisdom and experiences. And quotes help to lift you up when you feel low in spirits.

So, following are the quotes. I have sorted the quotes into four categories: self-love, self-esteem, self-acceptance, and self-forgiveness. 

Quotes on self-love

To fall in love with yourself is the first secret to happiness – Robert Morley

When a relationship ends, the overwhelming emptiness not the other person being gone, but the lack of self-love – Louise Hay

Comparing myself with others make me feel either superior or inferior, never acceptable exactly as I am. What a waste of time and energy! There has never been another person like me since time began, so there is nothing and no one to compare or compete with! – Unknown

Love is the miracle cure. Loving ourselves works miracles in our lives – Louise Hay

You have been criticizing yourself for years and it hasn’t worked. Try approving of yourself and see what happens – Louise Hay

In order to heal we must forgive. And sometimes the person we must forgive is ourselves – Mila Bron

Talk to yourself like you would to someone you love – Brené brown 

All that I seek is already within me – Louise Hay

Confront the dark parts of yourself, and work to banish them with illumination and forgiveness. Your willingness to wrestle with your demons will cause your angels to sing – August Wilson

You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection – Sharon Salzberg

The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself – Michel de Montaigne

Anger, resentment and jealousy doesn’t change the heart of others–it only changes yours – Shannon Alder

As long as you look for someone else to validate who you are by seeking their approval, you are setting yourself up for disaster. You have to be whole and complete in yourself. No one can give you that. You have to know who you are, what others say is irrelevant – Nic Sheff

One of the greatest regrets in life is being what others would want you to be, rather than being yourself – Shannon Alder

You may be the only person left who believes in you, but it’s enough. It takes just one star to pierce a universe of darkness. Never give up – Richelle E. Goodrich

Falling in love with yourself first doesn’t make you vain or selfish, it makes you indestructible – Unknown

It’s not your job to be everything to everyone – Unknown

You were born to be real, not to be perfect. You are here to be you, not to live someone else’s life – Ralph Marston

Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent – Eleanor Roosevelt

Love yourself so much that when someone treats you wrong you recognize it – Rena Rose

You are allowed to be both a masterpiece and a work in progress simultaneously – Sophia Bush

One day I woke up and realized I was not made for anyone, I was made for me. I am my own – Unknown

The real difficulty is to overcome how you think about yourself – Maya Angelou

When I accept myself just as I am, I am freed from the burden of needing you accept me – Steve Maraboli

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

You’ll be amazed at what you can attract after you start believing in what you deserve – Unknown

The journey isn’t about becoming a different person. It’s about loving who you are right now – Suzanne Heyn

Accepting yourself only as long as you look a certain way isn’t self-love, it’s self-destruction – Laci Green

It took many years of vomiting up all the filth I’d been taught about myself and half-believed before I was able to walk on the earth as though I had a right to be here – James Baldwin

What you think about yourself is much more important than what others think of you – Marcus Annaeus Seneca

Friendship with oneself is all-important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else – Eleanor Roosevelt

You cannot be lonely if you like the person you’re alone with – Wayne Dyer

Be careful how you are talking to yourself because you are listening – Lisa Hayes

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

When you know you are doing your very best within the circumstances of your existence, applaud yourself – Rusty Berkus

You’re always with yourself, so you might as well enjoy the company – Diane Von Furstenberg

Love is what we were born with. Fear is what we have learned here. The spiritual journey is the relinquishment – or unlearning – of fear and the acceptance of love back into our hearts. Love is our ultimate reality and our purpose on earth. To be consciously aware of it, to experience love in ourselves and others, is the meaning of life – Marianne Williamson

You don’t have to be part of a couple to be happy, you know – Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Don’t waste your energy trying to change opinions. Do your thing, and don’t care if they like it – Tina Fey

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

Your goal is not to be better than anybody else. It’s to be better than you used to be – Karen Salmansohn

Don’t sacrifice yourself too much, because if you sacrifice too much there’s nothing else you can give and nobody will care for you – Karl Lagerfeld

It’s not your job to like me…It’s mine! – Byron Katie

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 

Self-esteem and self-love are the opposites of fear; the more you like yourself, the less you fear anything – Brian Tracy

You have to love yourself because no amount of love from others is sufficient to fill the yearning that your soul requires from you – Dodinsky

Your problem is you’re too busy holding onto your unworthiness – Ram Dass

Care about what other people think and you will always be their prisoner – Lao Tzu

Those who feel lovable, who love, and who experience belonging simply believe they are worthy of love and belonging – Brené Brown

In a society of “put yourself last”, self-love and self-acceptance are almost revolutionary – Brene Brown

Be everything to you, not everything to everybody – Lisa Lieberman Wang

Until you value yourself, you won’t value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it – M. Scott Peck

Don’t forget to tell yourself positive things daily! You must love yourself internally to glow externally – Hannah Bronfman

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 judgment called it disloyal. Now I see it as self-loving.” – Kim McMillen

Don’t ask yourself what the world needs, ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive – Howard Washington Thurman

The best day of your life is the one on which you decide your life is your own. No apologies or excuses. No one to lean on, rely on, or blame. The gift is yours – it is an amazing journey – and you alone are responsible for the quality of it. This is the day your life really begins – Bob Moawad

Quotes on Self-esteem

Confidence is not “they will like me”. Confidence is “I’ll be fine if they don’t” – Unknown

Be proud of who you are, and not ashamed of how someone else sees you – Unknown

It’s not who you are that holds you back, it’s who you think you’re not – Denis Waitley

Believing in our hearts that who we are is enough is the key to a more satisfying and balanced life – Ellen Sue Stern

Your chances of success in any undertaking can always be measured by the belief in your heart – Robert Collier

Aerodynamically the bumblebee shouldn’t be able to fly, but the bumblebee doesn’t know that so it goes on flying anyway – Mary Kay Ash

They are called, “SELF-worth” and “SELF-esteem” for a reason… we can’t let others decide what we are worth, that is so dangerous! Empower yourself! – Jaeda DeWalt

Why should we worry about what others think of us, do we have more confidence in their opinions than we do our own? – Brigham Young

Once you embrace your value, talents and strengths, it neutralizes when others think less of you – Rob Liano

Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are – Malcolm S. Forbes

If you do not respect your own wishes, no one else will. You will simply attract people who disrespect you as much as you do – Vironika Tugaleva

Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude – Thomas Jefferson

Self-esteem comes from being able to define the world in your own terms and refusing to abide by the judgments of others – Oprah Winfrey

True self-esteem is realizing that you are valuable because you were born. No matter where you came from, what color your skin is, what people say about your family or what mean things people may have done to you, because you were born, you are important and you matter – Oprah Winfrey

You can’t make people be or do what you want. All you can do is be unapologetic about what you want and let others show up however they can – Gabby Bernstein

 I would suggest that the next generation stop looking for happiness outside of themselves but instead turn inward – Gabby Bernstein

It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us – Debbie Ford

Every person is the creation of himself, the image of his own thinking and believing. As individuals think and believe, so they are – Claude M. Bristol

I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet- Mahatma Gandhi

The way you treat yourself sets the standard for others – Sonya Friedman 

It ain’t what they call you, it’s what you answer to – W.C. Fields

I am a strong woman with or without this person, with or without this job, and with or without these tight pants – Queen Latifah

We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained – Marie Curie

Love yourself enough to set boundaries. Your time and energy are precious. You get to choose how you use it. You teach people how to treat you by deciding what you will and won’t accept – Anna Taylor

If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint’, then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced – Vincent Van Gogh

quotes on self-acceptance

I’ve finally stopped running away from myself. Who else is there better to be? – Golden Hawn

We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves – Dalai Lama XIV

Because true belonging only happens when we present our authentic, imperfect selves to the world, our sense of belonging can never be greater than our level of self-acceptance – Brené Brown

 I laugh at myself. I don’t take myself completely seriously. 

I think that’s another quality that people have to hold on to… you have to laugh, especially at yourself – Madonna

I’m not OK, you’re not OK – and that’s OK – William Sloane Coffin

Accept the place the divine providence has found for you – Ralph Waldo Emerson

When you stop living your life based on what others think of you real life begins. At that moment, you will finally see the door of self-acceptance opened – Shannon Alder

All I’m saying is that sooner or later, you’ll have to come to terms with yourself. You can’t wish away the vampire in you, and you shouldn’t keep atoning for it. You should figure out who you are and what you need, and then don’t apologize for it. Not to me, to your mum, or to anyone – Jeaniene Frost

I’m nothing great. But I’m a rose… I’m a rose whether I’m admired or not, I’m a rose whether anyone’s crazy about me or not… Like I said, nothing great. Just a rose… But, do you know what it means to be a rose, my friend? Being a rose means ‘freedom.’ It means not existing by the praises of others or not ceasing to exist by their disapproval – Serdar Özkan

Animals are born who they are, accept it, and that is that. They live with greater peace than people do – Gregory Maguire

No amount of self-improvement can make up for any lack of self-acceptance – Robert Holden

I think everybody’s weird. We should all celebrate our individuality and not be embarrassed or ashamed of it – Johnny Depp

The things that make me different are the things that make me me – A. A. Milne

Every day I wake up and ask myself, “How can I accept myself and others more fully?” – Alaric Hutchinson

Option A:

Spend your life trying to get others to accept you.

Option B:

Accept yourself, and spend your life with others who recognize what a beauty you are – Scott Stabile

We don’t have to wait until we are on our deathbed to realize what a waste of our precious lives it is to carry the belief that something is wrong with us – Tara Brach

The greatest act of courage is to be and to own all of who you are — without apology, without excuses, without masks to cover the truth of who you are – Debbie Ford

Fitting in and belonging are not the same thing. In fact, fitting in is one of the greatest barriers to belonging. Fitting in is about assessing a situation and becoming who you need to be in order to be accepted. Belonging, on the other hand, doesn’t require us to change who we are; it requires us to be who we are – Brené Brown

Embrace the glorious mess that you are – Elizabeth Gilbert

When you know yourself you are empowered. When you accept yourself, you are invincible – Tina Lifford

I’m not in this world to live up to your expectations and you’re not in this world to live up to mine – Bruce Lee

Accepting yourself is about respecting yourself. It’s about honoring yourself right now, here today, in this moment. Not just who you could become somewhere down the lane – Kris Carr

Accept yourself, love yourself, and keep moving forward. If you want to fly, you have to give up what weighs you down – Roy T. Bennett

Be strong enough to stand alone, smart enough to know when you need help, and brave enough to ask it – Ziad K. Abedelnour

What self-acceptance does is open up more possibilities of succeeding because you aren’t fighting yourself along the way – Shannon Ables 

quotes on self-forgiveness

Forgive yourself for what you think you’ve done or not done. At every moment, you had your reasons for all of your actions and decisions. You’ve always done the best that you could do. Forgive yourself – Doreen Virtue

Embrace and love all of yourself – past, present, and future. Forgive yourself quickly and as often as necessary. Encourage yourself. Tell yourself good things about yourself – Melody Beattie

Forgive yourself, you are not perfect. Show yourself grace; you are still learning. Show yourself patience; you are on a journey – Shannon Yvette Tanner

He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love – Martin Luther King, Jr.

You are not your mistakes; they are what you did, not who you are – Lisa Lieberman-Wang

Forgiveness is for yourself because it frees you. It lets you out of that prison you put yourself in – Louise Hay

All we have to do is forgive ourselves wholly and completely for ever thinking that we are not good enough – Jodi Aman 

You cannot travel back in time to fix your mistakes, but you can learn from them and forgive yourself for not knowing better – Leon Brown

Don’t dwell too much on the past. The lessons are useful for the present and a preparation for the future. Move on! – Lailah Gifty Akita

You can sit there forever, lamenting about how bad you’ve been, feeling guilty until you die, and not one tiny slice of that guilt will do anything to change a single thing in the past. Forgive yourself, then move on!- Wayne Dyer

Inner peace can be reached only when we practice forgiveness. Forgiveness is letting go of the past, and is therefore the means for correcting our misperceptions – Gerald G. Jampolsky

Surrender to what is, let go of what was, have faith in what will be – Sonia Ricotti

To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you – Lewis B Smedes

Remember that when you forgive, you empty yourself so that you may receive – Debasish Mridha

When you hold resentment toward another, you are bound to that person or condition by an emotional link that is stronger than steel. Forgiveness is the only way to dissolve that link and get free – Catherine Ponder

The only true way to create a more loving, productive, and fulfilling life is by forgiving the past – Iyanla Vanzant

Forgiving is giving up the hope that it couldn’t have been any other way than it actually was – Oprah Winfrey

Forgive yourself first. Release the need to replay a negative situation over and over again in your mind. Don’t become a hostage to your past by always reviewing and reliving your mistakes. Don’t remind yourself of what should have, could have, or would have been. Release it and let it go. Move on! – Les Brown

I shouldn’t have known better because I couldn’t have known better because I hadn’t yet learned what I know now. Today I forgive my younger self – Sandy C. Newbigging

What are the favorite inspirational quotes on self-love that have helped you? Please let me know in the comments below. I will add it to the list.

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