Quotes About Self-Love, Acceptance, and Compassion

“Your inner critic is simply a part of you that needs more self-love.”

― Amy Leigh Mercree

“And I said to my body softly, ‘I want to be your friend.’ It took a long breath and replied, ‘I have been waiting my whole life for this.”

— Nayyirah Waheed

“To fall in love with yourself is the first secret to happiness.”

— Robert Morley

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

― Lao Tzu

“She began to measure herself in contentment and laughter rather than pounds and inches.”

— Unknown 

“The same voice that says ‘give up’ can also be trained to say ‘keep going’.”

— Unknown

“Talk to yourself as you would someone you love.”

— Brene Brown

“Acceptance doesn’t mean resignation; it means understanding that something is what it is and that there’s got to be a way through it.”

― Michael J. Fox.

“The hardest challenge is to be yourself in a world where everyone is trying to make you be somebody else.”

— E. E. Cummings

“Stop spending all day obsessing, cursing, perfecting your body like it’s all you’ve got to offer the world. Your body is not your art, it’s your paintbrush.”

— Glennon Doyle

“Everything begins with accepting oneself. Without self-acceptance, one cannot accomplish anything.”

― Xuan-Thu Nguyen

“You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.”

— Buddha  

“I have learned to like myself for the first time and to have some serenity.”

― Keith Miller

“When we stop judging ourselves, we stop judging other people. When we start loving ourselves, we start loving other people.”

— Unknown

“Never say anything about yourself you do not want to come true.”

— Brian Tracy

“Self-kindness is self-empathy. And even when I talk to myself like someone I love and it feels weird, it works.”

— Brene Brown

“The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.”

— Joseph Campbell

“Make sure your worst enemy doesn’t live between your own two ears.”

— Laird Hamilton

“Nothing brings down walls as surely as acceptance.”

― Deepak Chopra

“To do: stop being so hard on myself.”

— Unknown

“To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself.”

― Thich Nhat Hanh

“A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.”

— Mark Twain

“The real difficulty in self love is combating the inner critic who goes against our own wishes by challenging our own beliefs. You know you’re worthy of love, but the critic keeps reminding you of the past pain that you can’t let go of.”

— Unknown

“Observe everything. Judge nothing.”

— David Colella

“Love yourself first, because that’s who you’ll be spending the rest of your life with.”

— Unknown

“Tell yourself how wonderful you are, how great you are. Tell yourself how much you love yourself.”

— Don Miguel Ruiz

“Change is possible, but it must start with self-acceptance.”

― Alexander Lowen

“Self-approval and self-acceptance in the now are the main keys to positive changes in every area of our lives.”

— Louise Hay

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

— Edmund Hillary

“Love yourself first, and everything else falls into line.”

— Lucille Ball

“Be very very very gentle with yourself. The world is very very very hard on you.”

— Srividya Srinivasan

“You can never meet your potential until you truly learn to love yourself.”

— Teresa Collins

“A moment of self-compassion can change your entire day. A string of such moments can change the course of your life.”

— Christopher K. Germer

“Stay true to yourself. An original is worth more than a copy.”

— Suzy Kassem

“Self-acceptance open up more possibilities of succeeding because you aren’t fighting yourself along the way.”

― Shannon Ables

“I learned a long time ago the wisest thing I can do is be on my own side.”

— Maya Angelou

“Your body hears everything your mind says.”

― Naomi Judd

“No other love no matter how genuine it is, can fulfill one’s heart better than unconditional self-love.”

— Edmond Mbiaka

“Loving ourselves works miracles in our lives.”

— Louise Hay

“Accept – then act. Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it. Always work with it, not against it.”

― Eckhart Tolle

“The only person who can pull me down is myself, and I’m not going to let myself pull me down anymore.”

— C. Joybell C.

“If I am not good to myself, how can I expect anyone else to be?”

— Maya Angelou

“If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete.”

— Jack Kornfield

“Positive self-talk is to emotional pain as pain pill is to physical pain.”

— Edmond Mbiaka

“You can’t hate yourself happy. You can’t criticize yourself thin. You can’t shame yourself worthy. Real change begins with self-love and self-care.”

— Jessica Ortner

“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.”

— Dalai Lama

“Embrace the glorious mess that you are.”

— Elizabeth Gilbert

“Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive.”

— Dalai Lama

“You deserve all the love and kindness that you give so easily to others.” 

— Unknown

“Self care is how you take your power back.”

— Lalah Delia

“The greatest antidote to insecurity and a sense of fear is compassion. It brings one back to the basis of one’s inner strength.”

— Dalai Lama

“Understand your worth. Value your life. Appreciate your blessings.”

— Unknown

“I'm giving you permission to root for yourself and while you're at it root for those around you, too.”

— Mindy Kaling

“Stop trying to fix your body. It was never broken.”

— Eve Ensler

“Am I good enough? Yes, I am.”

— Michelle Obama

“Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.”

— Maya Angelou

“The way to get kindness within yourself is spending time being nice to yourself, spending time getting to know and (dare I say it!) getting to love yourself… Loving yourself helps you love other people.”

— Jeffrey Marsh

“Compassion is the radicalism of our time.” 

— Dalai Lama

“The truth is, unless you let go, unless you forgive yourself, unless you forgive the situation, unless your realize the situation is over, you cannot move forward.”

— Steve Maraboli

“Healing comes when we meet our wounded places with compassion.”

— Stephen Levine

“Kindness begins with the understanding that we all struggle.”

— Charles Glassman

“Love yourself; you won’t regret it ever.”

― M.F. Moonzajer

“True self-care is not salt baths and chocolate cake, it is making the choice to build a life you don’t need to regularly escape from.” 

― Brianna Wiest

“I’ve been searching for ways to heal myself, and I’ve found that kindness is the best way.”

— Lady Gaga

“Our mind should be soft and open enough to understand things as they are; it is called mindfulness.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

“I prefer you to make mistakes in kindness than work miracles in unkindness.”

― Mother Teresa

“A kind and compassionate act is often its own reward.”

— William John Bennett

“The capacity to witness what is happening inside us with a nonjudging attention allows us to respond to life from our full intelligence and heart.”

— Tara Brach

“Let us temper our criticism with kindness. None of us comes fully equipped.”

— Carl Sagan

“Being a healthy woman isn’t about getting on a scale or measuring your waistline. We need to start focusing on what matters — on how we feel, and how we feel about ourselves.”

— Michelle Obama

“It is not our differences that divide us, it is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.”

— Audre Lorde

“Having compassion starts and ends with having compassion for all those unwanted parts of ourselves.”

— Pema Chodron

“Self-care is not selfish. You cannot serve from an empty vessel.”

— Eleanor Brown

“Accepting yourself only as long as you look a certain way isn’t self love, it’s self destruction.”

— Laci Green

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

— Audrey Lorde

“It’s about waking up in the morning and saying that I’m worthy of love, belonging, and joy. It’s about engaging with the world from a place of worthiness.”

— Brene Brown

“Every individual matters. Every individual has a role to play. Every individual makes a difference.”

— Jane Goodall

“Love yourself unconditionally, just as you love those closest to you despite their faults.”

— Les Brown

“Under all circumstances, we must never desert ourselves.”

— Louisa Adams

“Work hard, be kind, and amazing things will happen.”

— Conan O’Brien

“The reality was my life wasn’t miserable because I was curvy; I was miserable because I thought I’d be happier if I were thinner.”

― Brittany Gibbons

“Close your eyes and imagine the best version of you possible. That’s who you really are. Now, let go of any part of you that doesn’t believe it.”

— Chris Assad

“To love yourself right now, just as you are, is to give yourself heaven.”

— Alan Cohen

“When you say ‘yes’ to others make sure you are not saying ‘no’ to yourself.”

— Paulo Coelho

“I am learning to love myself. It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”

— Unknown