“It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.”
Epictetus
Collection
100 Self Love Quotes
A short introduction
Self love is easy to mock and easy to sell. The real thing is quieter. It is how you talk to yourself after a mistake. It is rest without calling it laziness. It is not making your worth a performance.
This page collects a hundred quotes about dignity, gentleness, and staying on your own side. Some come from poets. Some from teachers of compassion. A few are simply people who learned, late, that cruelty toward yourself does not make you better.
If a line helps you breathe, keep it. If a line feels like a demand to be happy, leave it. You do not owe anyone a glow.
You can copy a quote, or turn it into a poster for a mirror or a lock screen. FOURQuoteDesigns designs four versions. Credit the author. Then practice the sentence in a small way — a boundary, a walk, a kinder inner voice.
Self love quotes should feel like a friend, not a coach with a whistle.
You do not have to post any of this. A lock screen is enough. A folded note in a wallet is enough. If you want a picture, generate a poster and choose the design that looks like rest, not like a performance. Keep the author credited. Then practice one small kindness toward yourself today.
100 quotes
“No man is free who is not master of himself.”
Epictetus
“First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.”
Epictetus
“Don't explain your philosophy. Embody it.”
Epictetus
“Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.”
Epictetus
“He who laughs at himself never runs out of things to laugh at.”
Epictetus
“If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.”
Epictetus
“Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens.”
Epictetus
“Men are disturbed not by things, but by the views which they take of them.”
Epictetus
“The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best.”
Epictetus
“There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.”
Epictetus
“We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.”
Epictetus
“Any person capable of angering you becomes your master.”
Epictetus
“Attach yourself to what is spiritually superior, regardless of what other people think or do.”
Epictetus
“Circumstances don't make the man, they only reveal him to himself.”
Epictetus
“Demand not that events should happen as you wish, but wish them to happen as they do, and you will go on well.”
Epictetus
“Freedom is the only worthy goal in life. It is won by disregarding things that lie beyond our control.”
Epictetus
“If anyone tells you that a certain person speaks ill of you, do not make excuses about what is said, but answer: He does not know my other faults, else he would not have mentioned only these.”
Epictetus
“It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.”
Epictetus
“Know, first, who you are, and then adorn yourself accordingly.”
Epictetus
“Only the educated are free.”
Epictetus
“Practice yourself, for heaven's sake, in little things; and thence proceed to greater.”
Epictetus
“The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it.”
Epictetus
“When you are offended at any man's fault, turn to yourself and study your own failings. Then you will forget your anger.”
Epictetus
“You become what you give your attention to.”
Epictetus
“A ship should not ride on a single anchor, nor a life on a single hope.”
Epictetus
“Do not seek to have events happen as you wish, but wish them to happen as they do happen, and all will be well.”
Epictetus
“First learn the meaning of what you say, and then speak.”
Epictetus
“He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.”
Epictetus
“If you wish to be a writer, write.”
Epictetus
“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”
Aristotle
“Comparison is the thief of joy.”
Theodore Roosevelt
“The more you like yourself, the less you are like anyone else, which makes you unique.”
Walt Disney
“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
“If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.”
Henry David Thoreau
“The sun shines not on us but in us.”
John Muir
“This above all: to thine own self be true.”
William Shakespeare
“To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.”
Oscar Wilde
“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”
Oscar Wilde
“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”
Rumi
“You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop.”
Rumi
“You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.”
Maya Angelou
“Nothing can dim the light which shines from within.”
Maya Angelou
“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”
Eleanor Roosevelt
“I am the greatest. I said that even before I knew I was.”
Muhammad Ali
“The worst thing I can be is the same as everybody else. I hate that.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger
“Work harder on yourself than you do on your job.”
Jim Rohn
“A 'No' uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a 'Yes' merely uttered to please.”
Mahatma Gandhi
“Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”
George Bernard Shaw
“Calm mind brings inner strength and self-confidence.”
Dalai Lama
“The most important investment you can make is in yourself.”
Warren Buffett
“Don't compare yourself with anyone in this world. If you do so, you are insulting yourself.”
Bill Gates
“Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice.”
Steve Jobs
“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.”
Lao Tzu
“He who knows others is wise; he who knows himself is enlightened.”
Lao Tzu
“Mastering others is strength. Mastering yourself is true power.”
Lao Tzu
“Care about what other people think and you will always be their prisoner.”
Lao Tzu
“At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want.”
Lao Tzu
“When you are content to be simply yourself and don't compare or compete, everybody will respect you.”
Lao Tzu
“Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail.”
Oprah Winfrey
“Absorb what is useful, discard what is not, add what is uniquely your own.”
Bruce Lee
“Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself.”
Bruce Lee
“I'm not in this world to live up to your expectations and you're not in this world to live up to mine.”
Bruce Lee
“Showing off is the fool's idea of glory.”
Bruce Lee
“Love yourself first and everything else falls into line.”
Lucille Ball
“You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.”
Buddha
“How you love yourself is how you teach others to love you.”
Rupi Kaur
“Talk to yourself like you would to someone you love.”
Brené Brown
“Owning our story and loving ourselves through that process is the bravest thing that we'll ever do.”
Brené Brown
“You are imperfect, you are wired for struggle, but you are worthy of love and belonging.”
Brené Brown
“What we know matters, but who we are matters more.”
Brené Brown
“Courage starts with showing up and letting ourselves be seen.”
Brené Brown
“Vulnerability is not winning or losing; it's having the courage to show up and be seen.”
Brené Brown
“You are allowed to be both a masterpiece and a work in progress simultaneously.”
Sophia Bush
“The most powerful relationship you will ever have is the relationship with yourself.”
Steve Maraboli
“Self-care is not selfish. You cannot serve from an empty vessel.”
Eleanor Brownn
“Find the love you seek, by first finding the love within yourself.”
Rumi
“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”
Rumi
“Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are.”
Kurt Cobain
“I am my own muse. I am the subject I know best.”
Frida Kahlo
“Feet, what do I need you for when I have wings to fly?”
Frida Kahlo
“I never paint dreams or nightmares. I paint my own reality.”
Frida Kahlo
“The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.”
Coco Chanel
“In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different.”
Coco Chanel
“The best color in the whole world is the one that looks good on you.”
Coco Chanel
“A girl should be two things: who and what she wants.”
Coco Chanel
“Resist much, obey little.”
Walt Whitman
“Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim.”
Robert Frost
“The woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best.”
Henry van Dyke
“Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer's day is by no means a waste of time.”
John Lubbock
“It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.”
E. E. Cummings
“To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle.”
E. E. Cummings
“Become who you are.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
“The lonely one offers his hand too quickly to whomever he encounters.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
“What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.”
Aristotle
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“A friend is one soul in two bodies.”
Aristotle
“Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.”
William Shakespeare
“The course of true love never did run smooth.”
William Shakespeare
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FAQ
They are lines about treating yourself with respect — rest, boundaries, and a less harsh inner voice. They are not the same as boasting.