10 Best Self-Love Quotes That Will Change How You See Yourself

Self-love is not bubble baths and pretty mirrors. It is the quiet decision that you are worth the same care you give everyone else. These ten self-love quotes come from writers who learned this the hard way. Save the one that hits you. Come back to it on the days you forget.

Self-Love Category Healing Quotes All Topics Healing After Heartbreak

C. JoyBell C. on Your Own Opinion

Life is too short to waste any amount of time on wondering what other people think about you. What's important to me is not others' opinions of me, but what's important to me is my opinion of myself.

— C. JoyBell C. The Sun is Snowing (2010)

Most of the worry in your head is rented space. Other people's opinions of you live there for free. Charge them rent. Or kick them out.

Lesson

The opinion of yourself is the only one you have to live with every day. Make it a kind one.

Toni Morrison on Being Your Best Thing

You your best thing. You are.

— Toni Morrison Toni Morrison, Beloved (1987)

Five small words. Say them out loud. Not somebody else. Not someday. You, today, exactly as you are, are the best thing you have. Morrison wrote this in a novel about a woman who had been told her whole life she was nothing. She decided otherwise. So can you.

Lesson

You don't have to earn the right to love yourself. You already are the best thing you have.

Lucille Ball on Loving Yourself First

Love yourself first and everything else falls into line. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world.

— Lucille Ball Love, Lucy (1996, posthumous)

She wasn't talking about ego. She was talking about a foundation. When you don't love yourself, you build everything else on sand. The relationships. The career. The way you talk to yourself. All of it.

Lesson

Self-love is not the last item on the list. It is the soil everything else grows in.

Steve Maraboli on Decision Over Feeling

Don't try to make me happy or sad. Today I will be what I have decided.

— Steve Maraboli Unapologetically You: Reflections on Life and the Human Experience (2013)

Some days you wake up and you don't feel like loving yourself. You don't have to feel it. You can decide it. The feeling sometimes follows. Sometimes it doesn't. The decision is still worth making.

Lesson

You don't have to feel like loving yourself to do it. Just decide.

Nayyirah Waheed on Being Yours First

i am mine. before i am ever anyone else's.

— Nayyirah Waheed salt. (2013)

Read it slowly. Before partner. Before parent. Before friend. Before boss. Before all the roles other people gave you. You belong to yourself first. That is not arrogance. That is the right order.

Lesson

You are yours first. Everything else comes after.

Maya Angelou on Showing Up

I do not trust people who don't love themselves and tell me, 'I love you.' There is an African saying which is: Be careful when a naked person offers you a shirt.

— Maya Angelou Distinguished Annie Clark Tanner Lecture, 1997

You can't give what you don't have. People who don't love themselves run out of love for you fast. Notice how someone treats themselves before you let them treat you.

Lesson

Watch how a person loves themselves. That is how they will eventually love you.

Brené Brown on Being Worthy

Talk to yourself like you would to someone you love.

— Brené Brown The Gifts of Imperfection (2010)

Listen to the voice in your head for one full day. Write down what it says. Now imagine saying those things out loud to your best friend. You wouldn't. So why is it okay to say them to yourself?

Lesson

Be the friend in your own head you would want from someone else.

Audre Lorde on Self-Care as Survival

Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.

— Audre Lorde A Burst of Light: Essays (1988)

She wrote this while fighting cancer and the world at the same time. Taking care of yourself is not selfish. It is how you stay in the fight for the things you love.

Lesson

Caring for yourself is what lets you keep caring for everyone else. It is not optional.

Roy T. Bennett on Choices

Attitude is a choice. Happiness is a choice. Optimism is a choice. Kindness is a choice. Giving is a choice. Respect is a choice. Whatever choice you make makes you. Choose wisely.

— Roy T. Bennett The Light in the Heart (2016)

Self-love starts with small choices. The breakfast you make yourself. The way you brush off a mistake instead of replaying it. Every choice you make today builds the person who wakes up tomorrow.

Lesson

Self-love is not a destination. It is the small choice you make right now, and then again.

Anne Lamott on Unplugging Yourself

Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.

— Anne Lamott Stitches: A Handbook on Meaning, Hope and Repair (2013)

You are not lazy. You are not weak. You are tired. There is a difference. Self-love sometimes looks like rest. It sometimes looks like a nap. It sometimes looks like canceling the plan.

Lesson

Rest is not the enemy of progress. It is the price.

What These Self-Love Quotes Teach Us

Self-love is not a feeling that arrives one morning. It is a series of small decisions. The decision to talk to yourself kindly. The decision to rest. The decision to be on your own team. The quotes above were written by people who decided over and over again. You can decide too. Today is a fine day to start.

Your opinion of yourself is the one you have to live with. Make it a kind one.
Talk to yourself the way you would to someone you love.
Rest is part of self-love. It is not weakness.
How you love yourself teaches everyone else how to love you.
Self-love is built one small decision at a time, not in big moments.

Save the one that hit you hardest. Come back to it on a hard day. Then keep exploring — read more quotes or read more stories.