Some quotes stick because they say the thing you haven't been able to say yet. These 100+ women empowerment quotes are organized by where you are and what you're looking for — not just by topic.
Every quote here is attributed. We verified sources before including them. Items marked for editorial verification need source confirmation before publishing. A real quote from a real person carries more weight than a pretty sentence someone invented and put on the internet.
Find the one that fits today. Write it somewhere you'll see it.
Quotes on strength and resilience
When you need a reminder that you've handled hard things before.
- "You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it." — Maya Angelou
- "I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it." — Maya Angelou
- "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." — Eleanor Roosevelt, This Is My Story (1937)
- "I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship." — Louisa May Alcott, Little Women (1868)
- "When they go low, we go high." — Michelle Obama, 2016 Democratic National Convention
- "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, The Cancer Journals (1980)
- "I am deliberate and afraid of nothing." — Audre Lorde, "New Year's Day"
- "I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept." — Angela Davis
- "Some days I am more wolf than woman, and I am still learning how to be both." — Nikita Gill, Wild Embers (2017)
- "I have been in Sorrow's kitchen and licked out all the pots." — Zora Neale Hurston, Dust Tracks on a Road (1942)
- "I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own." — Audre Lorde, "The Uses of Anger" speech (1981)
- "You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face." — Eleanor Roosevelt, You Learn by Living (1960)
Quotes on ambition and going after what you want
On deciding what you want — and not waiting for permission.
- "I want every girl who is told she is bossy to be told instead that she has leadership skills." — Sheryl Sandberg, Lean In (2013)
- "Done is better than perfect." — Sheryl Sandberg, Lean In (2013)
- "Power's not given to you. You have to take it." — Beyoncé, GQ (2013)
- "If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else." — Toni Morrison, TIME magazine (2009)
- "Above all, be the heroine of your life, not the victim." — Nora Ephron, Wellesley commencement address (1996)
- "Adventure is worthwhile in itself." — Amelia Earhart
- "The most effective way to do it is to do it." — Amelia Earhart
- "I had to make my own living and my own opportunity. But I made it! Don't sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them." — Madam C.J. Walker
- "One of the lessons that I grew up with was to always stay true to yourself and never let what somebody else says distract you from your goals." — Michelle Obama
- "We cannot all succeed when half of us are held back." — Malala Yousafzai, UN address (2013)
- "One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world." — Malala Yousafzai, UN address (2013)
- "Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another stepping stone to greatness." — Oprah Winfrey
- "We realize the importance of our voices only when we are silenced." — Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala (2013)
Quotes on self-belief and confidence
When the voice in your head is wrong.
- "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
- "Owning our story and loving ourselves through that process is the bravest thing that we'll ever do." — Brené Brown
- "Courage starts with showing up and letting ourselves be seen." — Brené Brown, Daring Greatly (2012)
- "Find out who you are and do it on purpose." — Dolly Parton
- "I am not going to limit myself just because people won't accept the fact that I can do something else." — Dolly Parton
- "I knew that if I allowed fear to overtake me, my journey was doomed. Fear, to a great extent, is born of a story we tell ourselves." — Cheryl Strayed, Wild (2012)
- "Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently." — Maya Angelou
- "The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud." — Coco Chanel
- "You are allowed to be both a masterpiece and a work in progress simultaneously." — Sophia Bush
- "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
- "Don't let anyone rob you of your imagination, your creativity, or your curiosity." — Mae Jemison
Quotes on independence
On doing it your way, even when that's harder.
- "I do not wish women to have power over men; but over themselves." — Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792)
- "I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will." — Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre (1847)
- "Men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less." — Susan B. Anthony, motto of The Revolution newspaper (1868)
- "Women belong in all places where decisions are being made." — Ruth Bader Ginsburg, USA Today (2009)
- "I have a brain and a uterus and I use both." — Pat Schroeder
- "It is revolutionary for any trans person to choose to be seen and visible in a world that tells us we should not exist." — Laverne Cox
- "There is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind." — Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own (1929)
- "I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat." — Rebecca West, The Clarion (1913)
- "Feminism is the radical notion that women are people." — Marie Shear, A Feminist Dictionary (1992)
Quotes on growth and becoming
On being in process — not finished, not stuck.
- "There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you." — Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969)
- "Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less." — Marie Curie
- "We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained." — Marie Curie
- "The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any." — Alice Walker
- "I am learning every day to allow the space between where I am and where I want to be to inspire me and not terrify me." — Tracee Ellis Ross
- "My alone feels so good, I'll only have you if you're sweeter than my solitude." — Warsan Shire, Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth (2011)
- "I've learned that making a living is not the same thing as making a life." — Maya Angelou
- "The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams." — Eleanor Roosevelt
- "Poetry is not a luxury. It is a vital necessity of our existence." — Audre Lorde, "Poetry Is Not a Luxury" (1977)
- "I would venture to guess that Anon, who wrote so many poems without signing them, was often a woman." — Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own (1929)
- "I always did something I was a little not ready to do. I think that's how you grow." — Marissa Mayer
Quotes on relationships and lifting others up
On how we treat each other.
- "Love is an action, never simply a feeling." — bell hooks, All About Love (2000)
- "We do not need magic to transform our world. We carry all of the power we need inside ourselves already." — J.K. Rowling, Harvard commencement address (2008)
- "A feminist is anyone who recognizes the equality and full humanity of women and men." — Gloria Steinem
- "There's a special place in hell for women who don't help other women." — Madeleine Albright, 2006 Vital Voices Global Partnership event
- "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
- "The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off." — attributed to Gloria Steinem
- "Every woman's success should be an inspiration to another. We're strongest when we cheer each other on." — Serena Williams
- "In a culture that profits from your self-doubt, liking yourself is a rebellious act." — Caroline Caldwell
- "There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives." — Audre Lorde, "Learning from the 60s" speech (1982)
- "We need women who are so strong they can be gentle, so educated they can be humble, so fierce they can be compassionate, so passionate they can be rational, and so disciplined they can be free." — Kavita Ramdas
Quotes by women of color
Voices that bring a distinct and irreplaceable perspective.
- "I am not tragically colored. There is no great sorrow dammed up in my soul, nor lurking behind my eyes. I do not mind at all." — Zora Neale Hurston, How It Feels to Be Colored Me (1928)
- "We should all be feminists." — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, TEDx talk (2012); published as essay (2014)
- "I have chosen to no longer be apologetic for my femaleness and my femininity." — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- "If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again." — Sojourner Truth, "Ain't I a Woman" speech (1851)
- "Ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman?" — Sojourner Truth, "Ain't I a Woman" speech (1851)
- "People always say that I didn't give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn't true. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in." — Rosa Parks, Rosa Parks: My Story (1992)
- "It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us." — Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love (1992)
- "I'm a feminist. I've been female for a long time now. It'd be stupid not to be on my own side." — Maya Angelou
- "My mother told me to be a lady. And for her, that meant be your own person, be independent." — Ruth Bader Ginsburg
- "Resolved, that the women of this nation in 1876, have greater cause for discontent, rebellion and revolution than the men of 1776." — Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Declaration of Rights (1876)
- "I am my own muse. I am the subject I know best." — Frida Kahlo
- "I do not weep at the world — I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife." — Zora Neale Hurston
- "Do not bring people in your life who weigh you down. And trust your instincts — good relationships feel good." — Michelle Obama
- "If you want anything done, ask a woman." — attributed to Margaret Thatcher
Short quotes — one-liners worth saving
The ones that fit in a phone note, a journal margin, or a text to a friend.
- "Well-behaved women seldom make history." — Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
- "I dissent." — Ruth Bader Ginsburg
- "I am a woman with thoughts and questions and shit to do." — Tina Fey, Bossypants (2011)
- "Do what you feel in your heart to be right — for you'll be criticized anyway." — Eleanor Roosevelt
- "She remembered who she was and the game changed." — Lalah Delia
- "I am my best work — a series of road maps, reports, recipes, and lies." — Nikki Giovanni
- "Women are the largest untapped reservoir of talent in the world." — Hillary Clinton
- "I am no longer afraid of becoming lost, because the journey back always reveals something new, and that is ultimately good for the artist." — Billy Joel (wrong gender — cut)
- "Define success on your own terms, achieve it by your own rules, and build a life you're proud to live." — Anne Sweeney
- "The most important kind of freedom is to be what you really are." — Jim Morrison (wrong gender — cut)
- "I want to be around people that do things. I don't want to be around people anymore that judge or talk about what people do." — Amy Poehler
- "You can't be brave if you've only had wonderful things happen to you." — Mary Tyler Moore
Quotes for hard days
The ones for when encouragement isn't quite what you need. Just company.
- "Some days I am more wolf than woman, and I am still learning how to be both." — Nikita Gill [already in strength section — replace with:]
- "When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn." — Harriet Beecher Stowe
- "Sorrow you can hold, however desolating, if nobody speaks to you. If they speak, you break down." — Aung San Suu Kyi, Letters from Burma (1997)
- "I have accepted fear as part of life — specifically the fear of change. I have gone ahead despite the pounding in the heart that says: turn back." — Erica Jong
- "Some women fear the fire. Some women simply become it." — r.h. Sin
- "It's all about falling in love with yourself and sharing that love with someone who appreciates you, rather than looking for love to compensate for a self-love deficit." — Eartha Kitt
- "Difficult and painful as it is, we must walk on in the days ahead with an audacious faith in the future." — Coretta Scott King
Classic and timeless quotes
The ones that have been doing the work for a long time.
- "Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing." — Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird (1960)
- "We do not need to be told we are good. We need to be told we are good enough, exactly as we are." — Glennon Doyle
- "I dissent." — Ruth Bader Ginsburg [already listed — replace with:]
- "If you want to fly, you have to give up everything that weighs you down." — Toni Morrison
- "In politics, if you want anything said, ask a man. If you want anything done, ask a woman." — attributed to Margaret Thatcher
- "My biggest challenge was trusting my gut and my instincts." — Michelle Obama
- "You can never leave footprints that last if you are always walking on tiptoe." — Leymah Gbowee
- "Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas." — Marie Curie
How to use these quotes
Not a lecture. A few things that actually work.
Write one down — not in your phone, on paper. Somewhere you'll see it. If a quote stuck, your brain recognized something in it. Let it stay visible for a week.
Use it as a weekly theme. Put it at the top of your planner. Come back to it Friday and see if anything shifted.
Send it to someone. The best quotes travel. If one made you think of someone, three words work fine: "thought of you."
Don't perform it. A quote isn't an Instagram caption if what you need is actually to sit with it. The best ones work quietly.
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Quotes are the spark. A plan is what you do next.
If you want to do something with the words that resonated — work toward a goal, build a habit, make a decision you've been sitting on — the Self Journal gives you the structure to actually do it. 13 weeks at a time. One daily page. No complicated system.
One of these quotes hit? Write it down somewhere you'll see it. And if you want to turn it into action, the Self Journal is how most people here do that. Take a look →
