96 Confidence quotes to activate and empower.

I was always looking outside myself for strength and confidence, but it comes from within. It is there all the time.”

Anna Freud

Self-confidence can be learned, practiced, and mastered — just like any other skill. Once you master it, everything in your life will change for the better.”

Barrie Davenport

You can’t hate yourself into change. Love yourself into greatness.”

Emma Lovewell

Imagine that a friend is going through exactly what you’re going through. What would you say to that friend? You’ll think of something much more reassuring than your current doubt-filled dialog to yourself.

I am Superman. And the only thing that can kill Superman is Kryptonite. And Kryptonite doesn’t exist.”

Shaquille O'Neal

What is your Kryptonite? What are you afraid of? Most likely, your Kryptonite doesn’t exist, or hasn’t happened, or is based on “what ifs.”

Success is most often achieved by those who don't know that failure is inevitable.”

Coco Chanel

We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained.”

Marie Curie

When you get stuck thinking about what you’re bad at, remember what you’re good at. Then, do that instead. You’ll instantly start to feel more confident.

Because one believes in oneself, one doesn't try to convince. Because one is content with oneself, one doesn't need others' approval. Because one accepts oneself, the whole world accepts him or her.”

Laozi

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

If it’s just a voice in your head saying you can’t do something, get aggressive. Prove that voice wrong. Argue with it. Demand to see its evidence. (It probably has none.)

It is best to act with confidence, no matter how little right you have to it.”

Lillian Hellman

Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world straight in the eye.”

Helen Keller

Envy comes from people’s ignorance of, or lack of belief in, their own gifts.”

Jean Vanier

If you’re feeling down on yourself and you notice feelings of envy toward someone else, refocus your energy. Ask yourself, what about you could make someone else feel envious?

People who ask confidently get more than those who are hesitant and uncertain. When you've figured out what you want to ask for, do it with certainty, boldness and confidence.”

Jack Canfield

Confidence isn’t just for us. Sometimes, we have to be confident around coworkers, friends, or family to get something done in collaboration.

We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are.”

Anais Nin

This quote used on a card or poster can leave people thinking.

The confidence which we have in ourselves gives birth to much of that which we have in others.”

Francois de la Rochefoucauld

What could your moments of low self-confidence foster in your interactions with others? It’s rarely anything good.

As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Of all our infirmities, the most savage is to despise our being.”

Michel de Montaigne

Confidence doesn't come out of nowhere. It's a result of something...hours and days and weeks and years of constant work and dedication.”

Roger Staubach

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

The eyes of others our prisons; their thoughts our cages.”

Virginia Woolf

Among the classic “confidence, just be yourself” quotes, this message reminds us that real confidence doesn’t come from external sources.

Successful people have fear, successful people have doubts, and successful people have worries. They just don't let these feelings stop them.”

T. Harv Eker

Embrace the beauty of uncertainty. It’s a place of infinite possibility.”

Tunde Oyeneyin

Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”

Arthur Ashe

Who could do with this reminder in a card or letter?

Don’t rely on compliments for confidence.”

Christine D’Ercole

This short self-confidence quote is perfect for banners or posters at schools, personal inspirational collages, and anywhere someone could potentially benefit from it.

With realization of one's own potential and self-confidence in one's ability, one can build a better world.”

The Dalai Lama

We gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face...we must do that which we think we cannot.”

Eleanor Roosevelt

If you’re suffering from a recent blow to your self-confidence, inaction will only make it worse.

Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.”

Bernard Baruch

Action is a great restorer and builder of confidence. Inaction is not only the result, but the cause, of fear. Perhaps the action you take will be successful; perhaps different action or adjustments will have to follow. But any action is better than no action at all.”

Norman Vincent Peale

Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Make yourself into the person you can feel confident about.

Control your own destiny or someone else will.”

Jack Welch

Peruse a handpicked collection of success quotes for more confidence-boosters, too.

Once you become self-conscious, there is no end to it; once you start to doubt, there is no room for anything else.”

Mignon McLaughlin

Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.”

Dale Carnegie

The theme of taking action to breed confidence has been echoed by many of history’s greats.

Always be yourself — express yourself, have faith in yourself. Do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it.”

Bruce Lee

Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.

Helen Keller

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”

Eleanor Roosevelt

This short confidence quote by the eminent Eleanor Roosevelt fits perfectly onto banners, posters, and flyers.

When someone tells me “no,” it doesn't mean I can't do it, it simply means I can't do it with them.”

Karen E. Quinones Miller

Just believe in yourself. Even if you don’t, pretend that you do, and at some point, you will.”

Venus Williams

It’s easy to think of quotes by the Williams sisters as confidence tennis quotes, but this one hits deeper. This is a valuable reminder for women of all ages and circumstances.

Look for balance but always be willing to fall.”

Anna Greenberg

I am lucky that whatever fear I have inside me, my desire to win is always stronger.”

Serena Williams

You can feel fear without it being the only emotion in the moment. Identify the other emotions and find your source of strength and confidence.

I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.”

Maya Angelou

Confidence is the most beautiful thing you can possess.”

Sabrina Carpenter

Many body confidence quotes describe self-confidence as the most beautiful trait anyone can have. A similar quote by Blake Lively says, “the most beautiful thing you can wear is confidence.”

People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in their true beauty is revealed only if there is light from within.”

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

If you don't ask, the answer is always no.”

Nora Roberts

It took me quite a long time to develop a voice, and now that I have it, I am not going to be silent.”

Madeleine Albright

Once you find your sense of self-confidence, use it.

I am not afraid of storms for I am learning how to sail my ship.

Louise May Alcott

Part of confidence is remembering that it will make life’s downs easier, but it won’t eliminate them.

Don't waste your energy trying to change opinions...Do your thing, and don't care if they like it.”

Tina Fey

You can never leave footprints that last if you are always walking on tiptoe.”

Leymah Gbowee

Having confidence means having opinions, sharing them, and living your life with assurance in each step.

Confidence is not, “they will like me.” Confidence instead is, “I'll be fine if they don't.”

Christina Grimmie

I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear.”

Rosa Parks

One of the keys to confidence: know what you want. If you’re struggling with self-confidence in something, do you know what you want out of that situation?

One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation.”

Arthur Ashe

A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.”

David Brinkley

Highly competitive environments breed criticism, and sometimes, critique can deal a real blow to self-confidence. This quote could go on a poster with a visual depicting the metaphor.

Argue for your limitations, and sure enough they're yours.”

Richard Bach

Confidence is the most important single factor in this game, and no matter how great your natural talent, there is only one way to obtain and sustain it: work.”

Jack Nicklaus

Nicklaus was a respected athlete on the golf course, and for a dose of added confidence, golf quotes like this one can help (even outside the world of golf).

If you have no confidence in self, you are twice defeated in the race of life. With confidence, you have won even before you have started.”

Cicero

Self-confidence is contagious.”

Stephen Richards

If you hang around the right people, you’ll get a whiff of self-confidence that can help bolster your own.

If I have lost confidence in myself, I have the universe against me.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

You're never as good as everyone tells you when you win, and you're never as bad as they say when you lose.”

Lou Holtz

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.”

Mark Twain

Society has said for millennia that men must be courageous. However, courage isn’t the absence of fear, just like confidence isn’t the absence of doubt.

The greatest mistake you can make in life is continually fearing that you'll make one.”

Elbert Hubbard

Confidence is that feeling by which the mind embarks in great and honorable courses with a sure hope and trust in itself.”

Cicero

If confidence is embarking on “great and honorable courses,” cockiness is embarking on petty ones. The difference is important.

Public opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own private opinion.”

Henry David Thoreau

Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.”

Norman Vincent Peale

Don't be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others. Unfold your own myth.”

Rumi

Confidence comes from your own experience, not how yours compares to others’.

I quit being afraid when my first venture failed and the sky didn't fall down.”

Al Neuharth

The more validation I need, the less discernment I have.”

Kurt Hanks

This reminder can be a painful but pertinent one to send to a friend in a letter or card.

Don’t be defined by other people’s expectations. Define your own strengths.”

Susie Chan

If we all did the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves.”

Thomas Edison

A simple follow-up to this quote is to ask a child, “what are you capable of?” Learn what children’s perceived skills are, and then help them identify more.

When you have confidence, you can have a lot of fun. And when you have fun, you can do amazing things.”

Joe Namath

Acknowledge the fear and do it anyway.”

Emma Lovewell

Use this quote on a poster or banner to remind kids to lean into emotions. It’s OK to feel things; confidence comes from knowing the place of fear and doubt, but acting anyway.

Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.”

Michael Jordan

What better soundbite to use between confidence basketball quotes than this one, from one of the best basketball players of all time.

Sometimes you have to fight more than once to win it.”

Bradley Rose

The difference between try and triumph is a little “umph.”

Marvin Phillips

The play on words makes this short quote more memorable for kids.

The way to develop self-confidence is to do the thing you fear and get a record of successful experiences behind you.”

William Jennings Bryan

You wouldn't worry so much about what others think of you if you realized how seldom they do.”

Eleanor Roosevelt

It’s a major epiphany for kids when they learn that others are rarely thinking of or forming opinions about them.

Don't be distracted by criticism. Remember — the only taste of success some people have is when they take a bite out of you.”

Zig Ziglar

You can have anything you want if you are willing to give up the belief that you can't have it.”

Robert Anthony

She remembered who she was and the game changed.”

Lalah Delia

This message is embedded in a sort of microstory. It can be especially meaningful on a card or in a letter.

Confidence is contagious. So is lack of confidence.”

Vince Lombardi

Your story is what you have, what you will always have. It is something to own.”

Michelle Obama

Sometimes, the source of a quote is as important as the quote itself. Michelle Obama has been a long-time advocate for education, and this quote speaks directly to kids.

We all have our limitations, but when we listen to our critics, we also have theirs.”

Robert Breault

This flipped logic gives kids (and adults) an easy way to dismiss criticism that could otherwise undermine self-confidence.

The art of life is not controlling what happens to us, but using what happens to us.”

Gloria Steinem

What you have to give, the world needs.”

Aditi Shah

Remember what you do and do well, and give that to the world with full confidence.

If you think you can’t, change your mind.”

Denis Morton

Great things take time.”

Adrian Williams

With perseverance comes confidence.

Inhale confidence, exhale doubt.”

Alex Toussaint

Experience your own resilience.”

Mariana Fernandez

Accept who you are; and revel in it.”

Mitch Albom

Confidence isn’t just about knowing what you do well; it’s also about knowing and embracing who you are.

Skill and confidence are an unconquered army.”

George Herbert

This message goes well on a poster. It reminds us what they payoff of confidence can be.

Life is tough, but so are you.”

Carmi Grau , Super Nice Letters

Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.”

Samuel Johnson

Humor comes from self-confidence.”

Rita Mae Brown

You probably never associated humor and self-confidence, but it’s only when you have the latter that you can laugh at yourself, see the humor in life, and come out whole on the other side.

As is our confidence, so is our capacity.”

William Hazlitt

Without self-confidence, we undermine the abilities we already have, not to mention those we have the potential to develop.

It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.”

Edmund Hillary

I am, I can, I will, I do.”

Christine D’Ercole

This essential “be yourself” confidence quote is perfect for banners and posters.

Trust yourself — you know more than you think you do.”

Benjamin Spock.

The most effective way to do it, is to do it.”

Amelia Earhart

Don’t be the kid who hesitates at the top of the waterslide.

Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.”

John Wooden