Nearly everyone has attacks of insecurity and self-doubt. Gathered from some of the greatest novelists and most successful self-dev authors, the following quotes will help you reclaim your confidence. So, read on—and be brave, be bold, and be your amazing self!
Quotes for When You Need Confidence to Face Your Fears
Overwhelmed? Feeling afraid of what's ahead? These quotes deliver a welcome, reassuring message: "You'll get through this. You got this!"
1. "You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.' You must do the thing you think you cannot do.'" -Eleanor Roosevelt, You Learn by Living
2. "Fear begets fear. Power begets power. I willed myself to beget power. And it wasn't long before I actually wasn't afraid." -Cheryl Strayed, Wild
3. "The coward, then, is a despairing sort of person; for he fears everything,' Aristotle wrote. 'The brave man, on the other hand, has the opposite disposition; for confidence is the mark of a hopeful disposition.'" -Jon Meacham, The Soul of America
4. "What you feel doesn't matter in the end; it's what you do that makes you brave." -Andre Agassi, Open
5. "Brave doesn't mean you're not scared. It means you go on even though you're scared." -Angie Thomas, The Hate U Give
6. "What did it matter if something scared you, when it simply had to be done?" -Kate Quinn, The Alice Network
7. "I knew that I would have to be brave... really genuinely brave. Brave enough to be quiet when quiet was called for, brave enough to observe before flinging myself into something, brave enough to not abandon my true self when someone else wanted to seduce or force me in a direction I didn't want to go, brave enough to stand my ground quietly." -Piper Kerman, Orange Is the New Black
8. "Annabel nodded at her, turning to climb into her own seat, fastening her own harness with the self-assurance of a test pilot on his fiftieth run, rather than someone with no front teeth and a Dora barrette in her hair." -Abbi Waxman, The Garden of Small Beginnings
9. "No one should deter you from being you. You have to be you. And you can never be afraid to be you." -Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me
10. "I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship." -Louisa May Alcott, Little Women
Quotes for When You Need Confidence in Your Ability to Succeed
Launching a new business? Changing careers? Going back to school? Whatever your goal, these quotes offer a much-needed reminder: Believing in yourself is critical to achieving it.
11. "Believe it can be done. When you believe something can be done, really believe, your mind will find the ways to do it. Believing a solution paves the way to solution." -David Schwartz, The Magic of Thinking Big
12. "Realistic thinking is based on what others think is possible, but they are not you and have no way of knowing your potential and purposes." -Grant Cardone, The 10X Rule
13. "Average people have wishes and hopes. Confident people have goals and plans." -Brian Tracy, The Power of Self-Confidence
14. "'I never seek to defeat the man I am fighting,' he explained. 'I seek to defeat his confidence. A mind troubled by doubt cannot focus on the course to victory. Two men are equals—true equals—only when they both have equal confidence.'" -Arthur Golden, Memoirs of a Geisha
15. "Stay true to your own nature. If you like to do things in a slow and steady way, don't let others make you feel as if you have to race. If you enjoy depth, don't force yourself to seek breadth. If you prefer single-tasking to multi-tasking, stick to your guns. Being relatively unmoved by rewards gives you the incalculable power to go your own way." -Susan Cain, Quiet
16. "What matters in life is not whether we receive a round of applause; what matters is whether we have the courage to venture forth despite the uncertainty of acclaim." -Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow
17. "When you have confidence, you can have a lot of fun. And when you have fun, you can do amazing things." -Joe Namath, All the Way
18. "You are remembered for the rules you break." -Phil Knight, Shoe Dog
19. "A bold act requires a high degree of confidence." -Robert Greene, The 50th Law
20. "Don’t be surprised by your greatness. Be surprised that no one expected it." -Rebecca Maizel, Infinite Days
Quotes for When You Need Confidence in Your Own Worth
Reluctant to speak your mind? Worried about being judged—or what others might think? These quotes will give you the confidence to recognize your own value, even if you're a work in progress, and have confidence in your own convictions.
21. "Let others determine your worth and you're already lost, because no one wants people worth more than themselves." -Peter V. Brett, The Warded Man
22. "Stop comparing yourself with others. If they are good at something, you too are good at something else. Self-confidence is not measured by your own capabilities versus that of others, but by your own needs." -Stephen Richards, Develop Jedi Self-Confidence
23. "If you don't get out there and define yourself, you'll be quickly and inaccurately defined by others." -Michelle Obama, Becoming
24. "I'd rather be hated for who I am than loved for who I'm not." -Charlamagne Tha God, Black Privilege
25. "I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than all the rest of men, but yet sets less value on his own opinion of himself than on the opinion of others." -Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
26. "To admit uncertainty is to admit to weakness, to powerlessness, and to believe in yourself despite both. It is a frailty, but in this frailty there is a strength: the conviction to live in your own mind, and not in someone else's." -Tara Westover, Educated
27. "Nothing gives you confidence like being a member of a small, weirdly specific, hard-to-find demographic." -Mindy Kaling, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)
28. "Without feeling blazing rage or fear or sadness, I had asked for what I wanted. Getting it seemed secondary." -Sally Field, In Pieces
29. "Saying 'yes' doesn't mean I don't know how to say no, and saying 'please' doesn't mean I am waiting for permission. 'Yes please' sounds powerful and concise. It's a response and a request. It is not about being a good girl; it is about being a real woman." -Amy Poehler, Yes Please
30. "I remember being twenty-one and thinking that my personality was a solid thing, that me was set in stone, that I would always feel what I felt and believe what I believed. But now I know that me is fluid and shape-changing." -Lisa Jewell, Then She Was Gone
31. "Become who you are by learning who you are." -Robert Greene, Mastery
32. "I'm not perfect. I'll never be perfect. I don't expect anything to be perfect. But things don't have to be perfect to be strong." -Taylor Jenkins Reid, Daisy Jones & The Six
33. "Do your thing and don't care if they like it." -Tina Fey, Bossypants
34. "What's the point of having a voice if you're gonna be silent in those moments you shouldn't be?" -Angie Thomas, The Hate U Give
35. "As we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same." -Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom
Quotes to Celebrate Feeling Confident
Feeling great about yourself? You go! Jubilant and joyful, these quotes capture the power of having the confidence to bask in being you!
36. "She dressed in bohemian clothes, penned novels, panted, and yearned to roam forgotten corners of the world. She was habitually defiant and fearless, and when she felt controlled, as she often did, she could be irresistibly willful." -Laura Hillenbrand, Unbroken
37. "He made her more confident, funnier, smarter. He brought out all the things that were there already and let her be fully herself, so she seemed to shine with this inner light." -Liane Moriarty, What Alice Forgot
38. "They loved her because she was an independent spirit, unafraid to speak her mind, passionate, impetuous, and brave." -Kate Mulgrew, Born with Teeth
39. "Self-possession, that's what it was. This was someone who knew her own mind, her own worth." -Kate Morton, The Clockmaker's Daughter
40. "And yet she was wholly herself: a rarity." -Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch
41. "And though she be but little, she is fierce." -William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream
42. "A queen—a queen who bowed to no one, a queen who had faced them all down and triumphed. A queen who owned her body, her life, her destiny, and never apologized for it." -Sarah J. Maas, A Court of Mist and Fury
43. "A lion doesn't concern itself with the opinion of sheep." -George R. R. Martin, A Game of Thrones
44. "An empress does not concern herself with the antics of fools." -Gabrielle Union, We're Going to Need More Wine
45. "If I only had a little humility, I would be perfect." -Ted Turner, Call Me Ted
