200+ Inspiring Quotes for Young Women to Build Confidence and Strength

"There is no limit to what we, as women, can accomplish."

- Michelle Obama

"What's the greatest lesson a woman should learn? That since day one, she's already had everything she needs within herself. It's the world that convinced her she did not."

- Rupi Kaur

"Believe in yourself and be proud of who you are. Don't let anyone tell you differently. There is beauty in everyone and no one should stop you from growing into a confident and strong young person."

- Isabel Allende

"The only one who can tell you 'you can't win' is you, and you don't have to listen."

- Margaret Fuller

"Courage, sacrifice, determination, commitment, toughness, heart, talent, guts. That's what little girls are made of; the heck with sugar and spice."

- Bethany Hamilton

"I always did something I was a little not ready to do. I think that's how you grow. When there's that moment of 'Wow, I'm not really sure I can do this,' and you push through those moments, that's when you have a breakthrough."

- Marissa Mayer

"The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me."

- Ayn Rand

"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

"Above all, be the heroine of your life, not the victim."

- Nora Ephron

"As women achieve power, the barriers will fall. As society sees what women can do, as women see what women can do, there will be more women out there doing things, and we'll all be better off for it."

- Ruth Bader Ginsburg

"A girl should be two things: Who and what she wants."

- Dolly Parton

"Always be a first-rate version of yourself instead of a second-rate version of somebody else."

- Judy Garland

"I encourage women to step up. Don't wait for somebody to ask you."

- Reese Witherspoon

"Do not live someone else's life and someone else's idea of what womanhood is. Womanhood is you."

- Beyoncé

"Life is tough, my darling, but so are you."

- Stephanie Bennett Henry

"After all those years as a woman hearing, 'not thin enough, not pretty enough, not smart enough, not thin enough, not that enough,' almost overnight I woke up one morning and thought, 'I am enough."

- Anna Quindlen

"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

"Let go of who you think you're supposed to be; embrace who you are."

- Brené Brown

"Girls should never be afraid to be smart."

- Emma Watson

"If you don't see a clear path for what you want, sometimes you have to make it yourself."

- Mindy Kaling

"The most beautiful thing a woman can wear is confidence."

- Blake Lively

"Be strong, be fearless, be beautiful. And believe that anything is possible when you have the right people there to support you."

- Misty Copeland

"The world needs strong women. Women who will lift and build others, who will love and be loved. Women who live bravely, both tender and fierce. Women of indomitable will."

- Amy Tenney

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

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"Be a first-rate version of yourself, not a second-rate version of someone else."

- Judy Garland

"Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another stepping stone to greatness."

- Oprah Winfrey

"The woman who follows the crowd will usually go no further than the crowd. The woman who walks alone is likely to find herself in places no one has ever been before."

- Albert Einstein

"If you don't like the road you're walking, start paving another one."

- Dolly Parton

"A woman is like a tea bag— you never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life's a bitch. You've got to go out and kick ass."

- Maya Angelou

"When anyone tells me I can't do anything …I'm just not listening anymore."

- Florence Griffith Joyner

"Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, 'I will try again tomorrow."

- Mary Anne Radmacher

"The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any."

- Alice Walker

"Don't limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as your mind lets you. What you believe, remember, you can achieve."

- Mary Kay Ash

"Do one thing every day that scares you."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"Don't be intimidated by what you don't know. That can be your greatest strength and ensure you do things differently from everyone else."

- Sara Blakely

"I used to walk down the street like I was a superstar… I want people to walk around delusional about how great they can be— and then to fight so hard for it every day that the lie becomes the truth."

- Lady Gaga

"I learned to always take on things I'd never done before. Growth and comfort do not coexist."

- Virginia Rometty

"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

"Promise me you'll remember you are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, smarter than you think, and loved more than you'll ever know."

- A.A. Milne

"Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"I know my worth. I embrace my power. I say if I'm beautiful. I say if I'm strong. You will not determine my story. I will."

- Amy Schumer

"Being different isn't a bad thing. It means you're brave enough to be yourself."

- Luna Lovegood

"There is nothing stronger than a broken woman who has rebuilt herself."

- Hannah Gadsby

"I never dreamed about success. I worked for it."

- Estée Lauder

"The thing women have yet to learn is nobody gives you power. You just take it."

- Roseanne Barr

"And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom."

- Anaïs Nin

"We do not need magic to transform our world. We carry all of the power we need inside ourselves already."

- J.K. Rowling

"You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them."

- Maya Angelou

"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 your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough."

- Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

"There is no force more powerful than a woman determined to rise."

- W.E.B. Du Bois

"A strong woman is a woman determined to do something others are determined not be done."

- Marge Piercy

"I never dreamt of success. I worked for it."

- Estee Lauder

"Everyone has inside of her a piece of good news. The good news is that you don't know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is!"

- Anne Frank

"Don't think about making women fit the world - think about making the world fit women."

- Gloria Steinem

"I think realizing that you're not alone, that you are standing with millions of your sisters around the world is vital."

- Malala Yousafzai

"Every woman's success should be an inspiration to another. We're strongest when we cheer each other on."

- Sheryl Sandberg

"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

"Friends. Sisters. Mothers. Professors. When women affirm women, it unlocks our power. It gives us permission to shine brighter."

- Elaine Welteroth

"If everything was perfect, you would never learn, and you would never grow."

- Beyoncé

"I am thankful for my struggle because, without it, I wouldn't have stumbled across my strength."

- Alex Elle

"I will always be the girl who believed she could make it to the moon, in a world that still debates whether girls should have an education and whether women should have reproductive rights."

- G.D. Anderson

"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

"Do not ever sell yourself short."

- Jameela Jamil

"I'd rather regret the things I've done than regret the things I haven't done."

- Lucille Ball

"I am a woman and I get to define what that means."

- Swati Sharma

"You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don't try."

- Beverly Sills

"It is never too late to be what you might have been."

- George Eliot

"I can encourage the women who are striving to get their footing in the world to keep pushing and to express themselves."

- Angela Yee

"I don't really think about other people's opinions or expectations. The only ones I have are that of myself, to improve and get better."

- Greta Thunberg

"I have learned you are never too small to make a difference."

- Misty Copeland

"Never ever mistake her silence for weakness. Remember that sometimes the air stills before the onset of a hurricane."

- Nikita Gill

"I think beauty comes from knowing who you actually are. That's real beauty to me."

- Ellen DeGeneres

"Find something you're passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it."

- Julia Child

"We realize the importance of our voices only when they are silenced."

- Malala Yousafzai

"After all, Ginger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire did. She just did it backward and in high heels."

- Ann Richards

"If you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman."

- Margaret Thatcher

"The secret of getting ahead is getting started."

- Mark Twain

"We have to become the men we wanted to marry."

- Gloria Steinem

"Women must try to do as men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be but a challenge to others."

- Amelia Earhart

"Nothing is impossible. The word itself says, 'I'm possible!"

- Audrey Hepburn

"The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud."

- Coco Chanel

"A woman with a voice is by definition a strong woman. But the search to find that voice can be remarkably difficult."

- Melinda Gates

"And the trouble is, if you don't risk anything, you risk more."

- Erica Jong

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage."

- Anais Nin

"Passion is energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you."

- Oprah Winfrey

"Find out who you are and be that person. That's what your soul was put on this Earth to be. Find that truth, live that truth and everything else will come."

- Ellen DeGeneres

"It is our choices, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities."

- J.K. Rowling

"Don't ever underestimate the importance you can have because history has shown us that courage can be contagious and hope can take on a life of its own."

- Michelle Obama

"If you don't like being a doormat then get off the floor."

- Al Anon

"A lot of people are afraid to say what they want. That's why they don't get what they want."

- Madonna

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

- Amelia Earhart

"Somewhere inside all of us is the power to change the world."

- Roald Dahl, Matilda

"Listen to the mustn'ts child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the don'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me…. anything can happen, child. Anything can be."

- Shel Silverstein

"When Cher said that she didn't need to marry a rich man because she was a rich man."

- Cher

"The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain."

- Dolly Parton

"A woman with a voice is, by definition, a strong woman."

- Melinda Gates

"No one ever became a success without taking chances… One must be able to recognize the moment and seize it without delay."

- Estée Lauder

"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

"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

"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

"In life there is no real safety except for self-belief."

- Madonna

"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

"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

"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

"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

"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

"You could certainly say that I've never underestimated myself. There's nothing wrong with being ambitious."

- Angela Merkel

"There is a stubbornness about me that can never bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me."

- Jane Austen

"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

"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

"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

"I raise up my voice—not so I can shout, but so that those without a voice can be heard."

- Malala Yousafzai

"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

"What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make."

- Jane Goodall

"Courage is like a muscle. We strengthen it by use."

- Ruth Gordon

"Every great dream begins with a dreamer."

- Harriet Tubman

"There is always light. If only we're brave enough to see it. If only we're brave enough to be it."

- Amanda Gorman

"You must never be fearful about what you are doing when it's right."

- Rosa Parks

"When there are no ceilings, the sky's the limit. So let's keep going."

- Hillary Clinton

"Learn from every mistake, because every experience, particularly your mistakes, are there to teach you and force you into being more of who you are."

- Oprah Winfrey

"A woman is the full circle. Within her is the power to create, nurture and transform."

- Diane Mariechild

"A strong woman understands that the gifts such as logic, decisiveness, and strength are just as feminine as intuition and emotional connection. She values and uses all of her gifts."

- Nancy Rathburn

"You can have unbelievable intelligence, you can have connections, you can have opportunities fall out of the sky. But in the end, hard work is the true, enduring characteristic of successful people."

- Marsha Evans

"Just watch, all of you men. I'll show you what a woman can do…I'll go across the country, I'll race to the Moon… I'll never look back."

- Edna Gardner Whyte

"Woman must not accept; she must challenge. She must not be awed by that which has been built up around her; she must reverence that woman in her which struggles for expression."

- Margaret Sanger

"Always go with the choice that scares you the most, because that's the one that is going to require the most from you."

- Caroline Myss

"My mother told me that fear was not an option. I was always told that women are stronger, so I believed it."

- Diane von Furstenberg

"Where there is a woman, there is magic."

- Ntozake Shange

"I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own."

- Audre Lorde

"I can promise you that women working together - linked, informed, and educated - can bring peace and prosperity to this forsaken planet."

- Isabel Allende

"I am grateful to be a woman. I must have done something great in another life."

- Jane Goodall

"I've never been interested in being invisible and erased."

- Laverne Cox

"The women of today are the thoughts of their mothers and grandmothers, embodied and made alive. They are active, capable, determined and bound to win. They have one-thousand generations back of them...Millions of women dead and gone are speaking through us today."

- Matilda Joslyn Gage

"Sometimes things fall apart, so that better things can fall together."

- George Eliot

"If you look at what you have in life, you'll always have more. If you look at what you don't have in life, you'll never have enough."

- Oprah Winfrey

"She has a voice. If you can't hear it, it's because you're too busy talking."

- Amani Al-Khatahtbeh

"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much."

- Helen Keller

"If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun."

- Katharine Hepburn

"It's not your job to like me, it's mine."

- Byron Katie

"Our deepest wishes are whispers of our authentic self. We must learn to respect them. We must learn to listen."

- Sarah Ban Breathnach

"Be the type of girl that climbs the ladder wrong by wrong."

- Mae West

"It is past time for women to take their rightful place, side by side with men, in the rooms where the fates of peoples, where their children's and grandchildren's fates, are decided."

- Hillary Clinton

"Whatever women do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half their inferior. Luckily, this is not difficult."

- Charlotte Whitton

"Expect the unexpected, and whenever possible, be the unexpected."

- Lynda Barry

"We cannot change what we are not aware of, and once we are aware, we cannot help but change."

- Sheryl Sandberg

"You only live once, but if you do it right, once is only enough."

- Mae West

"I dwell in possibility."

- Emily Dickinson

"Always concentrate on how far you have come, rather than how far you have left to go. The difference in how easy it seems will amaze you."

- Heidi Johnson

"Those who do not move, do not notice their chains."

- Rosa Luxemburg

"It isn't what we say or think that defines us, but what we do."

- Jane Austen

"Just because you are blind, and unable to see my beauty doesn't mean it does not exist."

- Margaret Cho

"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

"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

"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

"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

"I think that passion is the secret ingredient that drives hard work and excellence."

- Kelly Ayotte

"You can't please everyone, and you can't make everyone like you."

- Katie Couric

"Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning."

- Gloria Steinem

"No matter where you are on your journey, that's exactly where you need to be. The next road is always ahead."

- Oprah Winfrey

"Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace."

- Amelia Earhart

"As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands—one for helping yourself, the other for helping others."

- Audrey Hepburn

"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world."

- Anne Frank

"Leadership is about making others better as a result of your presence and making sure that impact lasts in our absence."

- Sheryl Sandberg

"Every person has a responsibility to be a participant in this society and make it a better place for everybody, in whatever capacity they can."

- Megan Rapinoe

"Take the wisdoms of the women in this world and keep them at your side, always."

- Beanie Feldstein

"One individual cannot possibly make a difference, alone. It is individual efforts, collectively, that makes a noticeable difference - all the difference in the world!"

- Jane Goodall

"Feminism is not just about women; it's about letting all people lead fuller lives."

- Jane Fonda

"If you have knowledge, let others light their candles in it."

- Margaret Fuller

"I don't get my inspiration from books or a painting. I get it from the women I meet."

- Carolina Herrera

"Beautiful people are not always good but good people are always beautiful."

- Imam Ali

"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away."

- Maya Angelou

"We can do no great things, only small things with great love."

- Mother Theresa

"Success is getting what you want; happiness is wanting what you get."

- W. P. Kinsella

"I don't care what you think about me. I don't think about you at all."

- Coco Chanel

"Any woman who understands the problems of running a home will be nearer to understanding the problems of running a country."

- Margaret Thatcher

"I haven't been everywhere, but it's on my list."

- Susan Sontag

"Beauty fades, dumb is forever."

- Judge Judy

"The most revolutionary thing one can do is always to proclaim loudly what is happening."

- Rosa Luxemburg

"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

"Good girls go to heaven, bad girls go everywhere."

- Mae West

"Some people think that you have to be the loudest voice in the room to make a difference. That is just not true. Often, the best thing we can do is turn down the volume. When the sound is quieter, you can actually hear what someone else is saying. And that can make a world of difference."

- Nikki Haley

"There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it."

- Edith Wharton

"Like art, revolutions come from combining what exists into what has never existed before."

- Gloria Steinem

"I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver."

- Maya Angelou

"The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them."

- Ida B. Wells

"Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas."

- Marie Curie

"I am open and receptive to all the good and abundance in the universe."

- Louise Hay

"As we work to create light for others, we naturally light our own way."

- Mary Anne Radmacher

"Movements are born of critical connections rather than critical mass."

- Grace Lee Boggs

"As long as you live. there's something new everyday."

- Dolly Parton

"Sí se puede!"

"The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members."

"The unselfish effort to bring cheer to others will be the beginning of a happier life for ourselves."