Self-love is one of the most important skills anyone can have.
Skills? Yep, I call it a skill. It is the ability to feel and show love for yourself. And skills can be learned. But if you are in a place where positive feelings towards yourself seem out of reach, you might need some inspiration.
For that, I have collected these uplifting and inspiring self-love quotes. Enjoy! (And use them as self-love captions if you need some!)
Related: 75 simple self-care ideas for a happy, balanced life
Related: How positive affirmations help you become the person you want to be
1. Alison Malee
I forget how to love myself most days. But I keep trying. I keep trying. And that alone is a victory.
2. Charlie Chaplin
As I began to love myself I found that anguish and emotional suffering are only warning signs that I was living against my own truth.
3. Shannon L. Alder
One of the greatest regrets in life is being what others would want you to be, rather than being yourself.
4. Charles Bukowski
If you have the ability to love, love yourself first.
5. Rupi Kaur
How you love yourself is How you teach others to love you.
6. Tyra Banks
Self-love has very little to do with how you feel about your outer self. It’s about accepting all of yourself.
7. Buddha
You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.
8. Mark Twain
A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.
9. N.R. Shephard
There are plenty of places in which you will face rejection; the mirror… should not be one of them.
10. Sahaj Kohli
The fact that someone else loves you doesn’t rescue you from the project of loving yourself.
11. Elizabeth Gilbert
Embrace the glorious mess that you are.
12. Brené Brown
Talk to yourself like you would to someone you love.
13. Maya Angelou
Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.
14. Thich Nhat Hanh
To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself.
15. Ellen Sue Stern
Believing in our hearts that who we are is enough is the key to a more satisfying and balanced life.
16. Louise L. Hay
Love is the great miracle cure. Loving ourselves works miracles in our lives.
17. Margo Anand
Loving yourself…does not mean being self-absorbed or narcissistic or disregarding others. Rather it means welcoming yourself as the most honored guest in your own heart, a guest worthy of respect, a lovable companion.
18. William Shakespeare, Henry V.
Self-love, my liege, is not so vile a sin, as self-neglecting.
19. Veronica A. Shoffstall
Plant your own garden and decorate your own soul, instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers.
20. Lucille Ball
Love yourself first and everything else falls into line.
21. Diane von Furstenberg
You’re always with yourself, so you might as well enjoy the company.
22. Mae West
We must fall in love with yourselves. I don’t like myself. I’m crazy about myself.
23. Maxwell Maltz
Low self-esteem is like driving through life with your hand-break on.
24. Robert Morley
To fall in love with yourself is the first secret to happiness.
25. Howard Washington Thurman
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.
26. Byron Katie
Do you want to meet the love of your life? Look in the mirror.
27. Sandra Bierig
To accept ourselves as we are means to value our imperfections as much as our perfections.
28. Oscar Wilde
To love oneself is the beginning of a life-long romance.
Related: 9 winter self-care ideas to make your cold season more amazing
29. Stephanie Lahart
Respect, Love, and Value yourself. Always remember to be good to yourself by taking care of yourself. Make yourself a priority and know that it’s okay. Don’t feel guilty for loving yourself, first! You’re just as important as anybody else.
30. Edmond Mbiaka
No other love no matter how genuine it is, can fulfill one’s heart better than unconditional self-love.
31. Alan Cohen
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.
32. Jean Shinoda Bolen
When you recover or discover something that nourishes your soul and brings joy, care enough about yourself to make room for it in your life.
33. Andrew Matthews
A healthy self-love means we have no compulsion to justify to ourselves or others why we take vacations, why we sleep late, why we buy new shoes, why we spoil ourselves from time to time. We feel comfortable doing things which add quality and beauty to life.
34. Johnny Depp
I think everybody’s weird. We should all celebrate our individuality and not be embarrassed or ashamed of it.
35. Daphne Rose Kingma
Becoming acquainted with yourself is a price well worth paying for the love that will really address your needs.
36. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
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.
37. Roy T. Bennett
Accept yourself, love yourself, and keep moving forward. If you want to fly, you have to give up what weighs you down.
38. Zoe Kravitz
Beauty is when you can appreciate yourself. When you love yourself, that’s when you’re most beautiful.
39. Khoudia Diop
Self-love is not something that you get in one day or two days. It’s an ongoing process, and I go through it every day.
40. Solange Knowles
Self-love is really a foundation for everything, and however you practice or express that is so, so important.
41. Warsan Shire
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.
42. Madonna
I am my own experiment. I am my own work of art.
43. Amy Leigh Mercree
Celebrate who you are in your deepest heart. Love yourself and the world will love you.
44. Deborah Day
Lighten up on yourself. No one is perfect. Gently accept your humanness.
45. Alexandra Elle
We can’t be so desperate for love that we forget where we can always find it; within.
46. Shannon L. Alder
No boundary or barrier surrounds the heart of a person that loves their self and others.
Related: 31 ideas on how to make someone happy in their love language
47. Alexandra Elle
Be you, love you. All ways, always.
48. Jamila Woods
I wish that more people, especially young people, were taught about self-love at a younger age.
49. Meghan Daum
I don’t think anyone’s ever accused me of too much self-love.
50. Kemi Sogunle
If you don’t love yourself, you won’t be happy with yourself. If you can’t love yourself, you can’t love anyone else. You can’t give the love you do not have. You can’t make anyone love you without loving yourself first.
51. Karen Hackel
Loving oneself
Is the most primal
Of all survival mechanisms
52. Vironika Tugaleva
All love begins with the love within.
53. Wayne W. Dyer
Remind yourself that you cannot fail at being yourself.
54. Akiroq Brost
If you want to learn to accept others, first learn to unconditionally accept yourself.
Related: 8 helpful “Letting go of resentment worksheets”
55. Brian Andreas
There are days I drop words of comfort on myself like falling leaves and remember that it is enough to be taken care of by myself.
56. Lao-Tzu
Because one believes in oneself, one doesn’t try to convince others. Because one is content with oneself, one doesn’t need others’ approval. Because one accepts oneself, the whole world accepts him or her.
57. C. JoyBell C.
There is a magnificent, beautiful, wonderful painting in front of you! It is intricate, detailed, a painstaking labor of devotion and love! The colors are like no other, they swim and leap, they trickle and embellish! And yet you choose to fixate your eyes on the small fly which has landed on it! Why do you do such a thing?
58. Louise L. Hay
You have been criticizing yourself for years, and it hasn’t worked. Try approving of yourself and see what happens.
Related: 15 actionable tips to conquer self-doubt
59. Beau Taplin
Self-love is an ocean and your heart is a vessel. Make it full, and any excess will spill over into the lives of the people you hold dear. But you must come first.
60. Shannon L. Alder
The way you think about yourself determines your reality. You are not being hurt by the way people think about you. Many of those people are a reflection of how you think about yourself.
61. Jack Kornfield
If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete.
62. Sidney J. Harris
It’s surprising how many persons go through life without ever recognizing that their feelings toward other people are largely determined by their feelings toward themselves, and if you’re not comfortable within yourself, you can’t be comfortable with others.
63. Yogi Bhajan
You are very powerful, provided you know how powerful you are.
64. Jean Anouih
Our entire life… consists ultimately in accepting ourselves as we are.
65. The Universe
You are enough.
