75+ Empowering Quotes to Inspire Self Improvement

When someone is feeling down or held back it can be hard to inspire them. Helping them find their inner strength and confidence isn’t easy. How do you empower someone and give them the belief to fulfil their potential?

It’s a lot harder than it sounds. Empowerment and self improvement is something we should all be trying but often we lack the motivation. How many times have you wanted to do something but talked yourself out if it because you didn’t think you were good enough?

That’s why empowering quotes can be so helpful. They get to the root of inspiring us but in a short few words or sentences.

These quotes can make us take action, learning to be stronger and make the changes we want in our lives. When we empower ourselves we have the ability to change the world around us for the better.

So if you’re in need of some motivating or someone you know could do with a few words of inspiration to pick them up then try the selection of empowerment quotes below.

Short Empowering Quotes

“It’s not who you are that holds you back, it’s who you think you’re not” – Unknown

“It’s not always necessary to be strong but to feel strong” – Jon Krakauer

“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent” – Eleanor Roosevelt

“I never dreamed about success. I worked for it” – Estée Lauder

“The question isn’t who’s going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me” – Ayn Rand

“You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them” – Maya Angelou

“The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain!” – Dolly Parton

“Grow through what you go through” – Unknown

“You can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you will” – Stephen King

“Believe in your infinite potential. Your only limitations are those you set upon yourself” – Roy T. Bennett

“You wanna fly, you got to give up the shit that weighs you down” – Toni Morrison

“You can’t please everyone, and you can’t make everyone like you” – Katie Couric

“The most important conversation you will ever have is the one you have with yourself” – Unknown

“The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud” – Coco Chanel

Self Empowerment Quotes

• “Don’t be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others. Unfold your own myth” – Rumi
• “In life there is no real safety except for self-belief” – Madonna
• “Never be ashamed of what you feel. You have the right to feel any emotion that you want and to do what makes you happy. That’s my life motto” – Demi Lovato
• “I think that passion is the secret ingredient that drives hard work and excellence” – Kelly Ayotte
• “You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you” – James Allen
• “I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself” – Charlotte Brontë
• “You are the storyteller of your own life, and you can create your own legend or not” – Isabel Allende
• “Always remember within you is the creative power of the universe. It might not be enough to create a whole new universe, but it’s enough to manifest a whole new life for yourself” – Elle Sommer
• “I have learned that as long as I hold fast to my beliefs and values – and follow my own moral compass – then the only expectations I need to live up to are my own” – Michelle Obama
• “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t – you’re right” – Henry Ford
• “You could certainly say that I’ve never underestimated myself. There’s nothing wrong with being ambitious” – Angela Merkel
• “Find something you’re passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it” – Julia Child

Empowering Quotes for Women

• “A girl should be two things: who and what she wants” – Coco Chanel
• “A woman with a voice is, by definition, a strong woman” – Melinda Gates
• “Feminism isn’t about making women strong. Women are already strong. It’s about changing the way the world perceives that strength” – G.D. Anderson
• “I hate men who are afraid of women’s strength” – Anaïs Nin
• “We need women at all levels, including the top, to change the dynamic, reshape the conversation, to make sure women’s voices are heard and heeded, not overlooked and ignored” – Sheryl Sandberg
• “Of course I am not worried about intimidating men. The type of man who will be intimidated by me is exactly the type of man I have no interest in” – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• “Good girls go to heaven, bad girls go everywhere” – Mae West
• “If you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman” – Margaret Thatcher
• “There’s something so special about a woman who dominates in a man’s world. It takes a certain grace, strength, intelligence, fearlessness, and the nerve to never take no for an answer” – Rihanna
• “The thing women have yet to learn is nobody gives you power. You just take it” – Roseanne Barr
• “You don’t have to be pretty. You don’t owe prettiness to anyone. Prettiness is not a rent you pay for occupying a space marked ‘female.’” – Erin McKean

Women Empowering Women Quotes

• “A woman with a voice is, by definition, a strong woman” – Melinda Gates
• “We need women at all levels, including the top, to change the dynamic, reshape the conversation, to make sure women’s voices are heard and heeded, not overlooked and ignored” – Sheryl Sandberg
• “As women, we have to start appreciating our own worth and each other’s worth. Seek out strong women to befriend, to align yourself with, to learn from, to collaborate with, to be inspired by, to support, and enlightened by” – Madonna
• “With each generation, women’s ability to live the lives they choose reaches a place their grandmothers never thought possible. But that doesn’t mean everything is perfect or that our work is finished” – Cathy McMorris Rodgers
• “Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another stepping stone to greatness” – Oprah Winfrey
• “If you want to run for Prime Minister, you can. If you don’t, that’s wonderful, too. Shave your armpits, don’t shave them, wear flats one day, heels the next. These things are so irrelevant and surface to what it is all really about, and I wish people wouldn’t get caught up in that. We want to empower women to do exactly what they want, to be true to themselves, to have the opportunities to develop. Women should feel free” – Emma Watson
• “To all the little girls who are watching, never doubt that you are valuable and powerful and deserving of every chance and opportunity in the world to pursue and achieve your own dreams” – Hillary Clinton
• “Women have to harness their power – it’s absolutely true. It’s just learning not to take the first no. And if you can’t go straight ahead, you go around the corner” – Cher
• “As women, we have to start appreciating our own worth and each other’s worth. Seek out strong women to befriend, to align yourself with, to learn from, to collaborate with, to be inspired by, to support, and enlightened by” – Madonna
• “Above all, be the heroine of your life, not the victim” – Nora Ephron

Empowering Quotes about Life

• “My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style” – Maya Angelou
• “How would your life be different if you stopped allowing other people to dilute or poison your day with their words or opinions? Let today be the day. You stand strong in the truth of your beauty and journey through your day without attachment to the validation of others” – Steve Maraboli
• “If you want to change your life, begin by changing your words. Start speaking the words of your dreams, of who you want to become, not the words of fear and failure” – Robert Kiyosaki
• “I’m learning how to drown out the constant noise that is such an inseparable part of my life. I don’t have to prove anything to anyone. I only have to follow my heart and concentrate on what I want to say to the world. I run my world” – Beyoncé
• “Drama is very important in life: You have to come on with a bang. You never want to go out with a whimper” – Julia Child
• “What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make” – Jane Goodall
• “Fearlessness is like a muscle. I know from my own life that the more I exercise it the more natural it becomes to not let my fears run me” – Arianna Huffington
• “Accept no one’s definition of your life; define yourself” – Harvey Fierstein
• “Life does not consist mainly, or even largely, of facts and happenings. It consists mainly of the storm of thought that is forever flowing through one’s head” – Mark Twain
• “Accept responsibility for your life. Know that it is you who will get you where you want to go, no one else” – Les Brown

Inspirational Empowering Quotes

• “I found that ultimately if you truly pour your heart into what you believe in – even if it makes you vulnerable – amazing things can and will happen” – Emma Watson
• “Without leaps of imagination or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning” – Gloria Steinem
• “I’ve interviewed and portrayed people who’ve withstood some of the ugliest things life can throw at you, but the one quality all of them seem to share is an ability to maintain hope for a brighter morning, even during our darkest nights” – Oprah Winfrey
• “We do not need magic to transform our world. We carry all of the power we need inside ourselves already” – J.K. Rowling
• “No one ever became a success without taking chances. One must be able to recognize the moment and seize it without delay” – Estée Lauder
• “When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid” – Audre Lorde
• “Success, they taught me, is built on the foundation of courage, hard-work and individual responsibility. Despite what some would have us believe, success is not built on resentment and fears” – Susana Martinez
• “At any given moment you have the power to say: This is not how the story is going to end” – Christine Mason Miller
• “It’s through adversity that you find the strength you never knew you had” – Christie Brinkley

Empowerment Quotes for Friends

• “I raise up my voice – not so I can shout, but so that those without a voice can be heard”‘- Malala Yousafzai
• “Your possible future, and there are literally thousands of possible futures, is being formed by what you think and believe today” – John Kehoe
• “If you’re you’re not making mistakes, then you’re not making decisions” – Katherine Hepburn
• “You have a greater potential than anyone who has ever lived before you! But you’ll never “make it” by sitting on your duff and telling the world how great you’re going to be, starting tomorrow” – Og Mandino
• “We cannot all succeed when half of us are held back. We call upon our sisters around the world to be brave – to embrace the strength within themselves and realize their full potential” – Malala Yousafzai
• “If you’re one of those people who has that little voice in the back of her mind saying, ‘Maybe I could do [fill in the blank],’ don’t tell it to be quiet. Give it a little room to grow, and try to find an environment it can grow in” – Reese Witherspoon
• “You were put on this earth to achieve your greatest self, to live out your purpose, and to do it courageously” – Steve Maraboli
• “Cherish your solitude. Take trains by yourself to places you have never been. Sleep out alone under the stars. Learn how to drive a stick shift. Go so far away that you stop being afraid of not coming back. Say no when you don’t want to do something. Say yes if your instincts are strong, even if everyone around you disagrees. Decide whether you want to be liked or admired. Decide if fitting in is more important than finding out what you’re doing here. Believe in kissing” – Eve Ensler
• “Remember happiness doesn’t depend upon who you are or what you have: it depends solely upon what you think” – Dale Carnegie
• “All truly wise thoughts have been thought already thousands of times; but to make them truly ours, we must think them over again honestly, till they take root in our personal experience” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

We hope you now feel empowered and inspired to take on anything!

With these empowering quotes you should feel stronger in yourself and more confident to take on whatever challenges come your way.