Need Inspiration? These Empowerment Quotes Can Help
Who doesn’t love a good quote? Quotes have a way of telling you things that you need to hear, helping you put things in perspective, and motivating you to keep going. As an advocate for all women to be their own boss in life, I decided to compile some of my favorite empowerment quotes for women by inspirational women.
Hopefully, these motivate and inspire you and tell you what you need to hear, no matter what your stage in life.
Empowerment Quotes
…On defining and pursuing success
Your own hard work and perseverance will get you to where you want to be, however, how you define success is very personal. Sometimes, though, to get started, we need an inspirational quote to help put things into perspective. Oh and in the process, don’t apologize for who you find out you are, or what you decide you want.
The key to success is to start before you are ready.
Marie Forleo
and figure it out as you go along, like she did…
“I was asked to act when I couldn’t act. I was asked to sing ‘Funny Face’ when I couldn’t sing, and dance with Fred Astaire when I couldn’t dance – and do all kinds of things I wasn’t prepared for. Then I tried like mad to cope with it.”
Audrey Hepburn
I think success needs to be defined on your own terms. If you look to outside sources (friends, media, the internet) for constant validation, you will never feel fulfilled.
Jaclyn Johnson
I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took any excuse.”
Florence Nightingale
In case, you need some inspiration on the apologizing end of it, check out this new read!
…on Taking Chances
I think this goes hand-in-hand with success. You have to have the courage to take that first step towards reaching your goals, towards your definition of how you want your life to pan out. You have to take a chance on yourself.
If there’s one thing I’m willing to bet on, it’s myself.
Beyonce
And you should always challenge yourself and push yourself out of your comfort zone
If you’re too comfortable, it’s time to move on. Terrified of what’s next? You’re on the right track.
Susan Fales Hill
Anything’s possible if you’ve got enough nerve.
J.K. Rowling
Don’t forget to stay confident in your choices, especially if you know that you’re doing right by you.
You must never be fearful of what you are doing when it is right
Marie Curie
…on Self Worth
How you see yourself, and to believe in yourself, is the most important part of who you are. Let go of your self-doubt, channel all the strong women you know and admire, and never let anyone make you feel like you aren’t worth it, or that your time isn’t important.
When you learn how much you’re worth, you’ll stop giving people discounts.
Helen Keller
We need to get women to the point where they aren’t apologizing. It’s time to take ownership in our success.
Tory Burch
Love yourself first and everything else falls into line. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world.
Lucille Ball
This empowerment quote rings so true for me. We don’t ask for what we know we are worth, especially at work. We have skills, we have intelligence, we deserve to ask for what we deserve.
If you don’t value your time, neither will others. Stop giving away your time and talents. Value what you know and start charging for it.
Kim Garst
In the process, don’t forget to change the rhetoric on what you say to yourself.
You have been criticizing yourself for years, and it hasn’t worked. Try approving of yourself and see what happens.
Louise L. Hay
You’re always with yourself, so you might as well enjoy the company.
Diane Von Furstenberg
Even successful celebrities have feelings of imposter syndrome. Don’t let it bring down who you are at your core, or affect your path forward.
“It’s almost like the better I do, the more my feeling of inadequacy actually increases, because I’m just going, ‘Any moment, someone’s going to find out I’m a total fraud, and that I don’t deserve any of what I’ve achieved.’ I can’t possibly live up to what everyone thinks I am and what everyone’s expectations of me are.”
Emma Watson
This empowerment quote is one we all know well:
No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
Eleanor Roosevelt
…On accepting failure
No matter how many empowerment quotes you read, you need to get used to the idea of failure as a path to self-empowerment. So, here are some words of wisdom to help with that.
There is no innovation and creativity without failure. Period.
Brene Brown
Think like a Queen. A Queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another stepping stone to success.
Oprah Winfrey
It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.
J.K. Rowling
Maya gets it:
You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.
Maya Angelou
…on dealing with adversity
Bad things happen. All the time. They can change your life for the worst, or for the better. No matter what, we have to adapt to change and keep moving forward. What matters is how you pick yourself back up and move on.
You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.
Maya Angelou
But if you survive it (and you will)…
I really believe in the old expression that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. It’s through adversity that you find the strength you never knew you had.
Christie Brinkley
The road to success won’t always be easy, and the path you’re looking for may not even exist. In which case, be courageous enough to just build your own damn path. In doing so, you’ll even help those that come after you…what’s more empowering than that!
Some of us have great runways already built for us. If you have one, take off! But if you don’t have one, realize it is your responsibility to grab a shovel and build one for yourself and for those who will follow after you.
Amelia Earhart
Sometimes, to move forward, you have to let go. It might make people around you angry, but you sometimes gotta do what you gotta do.
You wanna fly, you gotta give up the sh– that weighs you down
Toni Morrison
…on being yourself
What people think of you is not your concern. There’s only one of you, so embrace it and never give up who you are to fit in.
Beauty begins the moment you decided to be yourself.
Coco Chanel
Don’t forget to use your voice in the process and never let yourself go quiet. It’s more powerful than you think.
We realize the importance of our voices only when we are silenced
Malala Yousafzai
The most common way people give up their power is thinking they don’t have any.
Alice Walker
Plus, everyone needs to rack up those life experiences.
I believe that a girl should not do what she thinks she should do, but should find out through experience what she wants to do.
Amelia Earhart
Finally, this is one of my all-time favorite quotes to live by. It’s not by a woman, but I love it enough to add it to this list:
Be yourself; everyone else is already taken
Oscar Wilde
…to make you laugh
“If women are supposed to be less rational and more emotional at the beginning of our menstrual cycle when the female hormone is at its lowest level, then why isn’t it logical to say that, in those few days, women behave the most like the way men behave all month long?”
Gloria Steinem
I chose the best motivational quotes and inspirational quotes about life that I could find from strong women and successful women who have beaten their own paths to get to where they are (or were). Nothing about life is easy; everything takes hard work. Empowering women to continue to strive for personal growth and achievement, I think, will help us to turn around and pass on the support to those that come after us.
