If you’re feeling fatigued, overwhelmed, or simply stressed and lacking inspiration today, this post can offer some assistance.
Here, I aim to share wisdom and empowering reminders from some of the most resilient and accomplished women throughout history.
These are 125 of the most positive, motivational, and inspirational quotes for women.
I trust you’ll discover something uplifting here, something to lead you to your own inner strength and propel you through challenging times towards your goals and dreams.
Inspirational Quotes for Women to Boost Positivity
“I aim to live in my own joy and not let anyone steal it or take it away.”
– Hoda Kotb
“Why not take a risk and bet on happiness?”
– Jenny Han
“Your job isn’t to be likable. Your job is to be yourself. Someone will appreciate you just as you are.”
– Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
“Life is either a thrilling adventure or nothing at all.”
– Helen Keller
“Love yourself first, and everything else will fall into place.”
– Lucille Ball
“The challenge isn’t to be perfect; it’s to be whole.”
– Jane Fonda
“Nothing can dim the light that shines from within.”
– Maya Angelou
“Hope is the most exhilarating thing in life.”
– Mandy Moore
“I breathe in hope with every breath I take.”
– Sharon Kay Penman
“Every day is a fresh opportunity to change your life and become who you aspire to be.”
– Demi Lovato
“I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day, and I believe in miracles.”
– Audrey Hepburn
“My experiences remind me that it’s those dark clouds that make the blue skies even more beautiful.”
– Kelly Clarkson
“Success is attaining what you desire. Happiness is desiring what you get.”
– Ingrid Bergman
“Once you know who you are, you no longer have to worry.”
– Nikki Giovanni
“What we women need to do, instead of worrying about what we lack, is to appreciate what we do have.”
– Cameron Diaz
“You are more powerful than you realize; you are beautiful just as you are.”
– Melissa Etheridge
“Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius, and it’s better to be utterly ridiculous than utterly boring.”
– Marilyn Monroe
“How marvelous it is that nobody needs to wait a single moment before beginning to improve the world.”
– Anne Frank
“I can’t think of a better representation of beauty than someone unafraid to be themselves.”
– Emma Stone
“Surround yourself with people and things that inspire you. Learn all that you can.”
– Jameela Jamil
“For beautiful eyes, seek the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone.”
– Audrey Hepburn
Short Inspirational Quotes for Women
“She believed she could, so she did.”
– R.S. Grey
“Life is tough, my darling, but so are you.”
– Stephanie Bennett-Henry
“Well-behaved women rarely make history.”
– Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
“When the world tells you to shrink, expand.”
– Yoko Ono
“Girls should never be afraid to be smart.”
– Emma Watson
“Choose your dream. Work to the extreme.”
– Tyra Banks
“Everything is figureoutable.”
– Marie Forleo
“I can and I will. Watch me.”
– Carrie Green
“Done is better than perfect.”
– Sheryl Sandberg
“Be the woman you needed as a girl.”
– Unknown
“Strong back. Soft front. Wild heart.”
– Brené Brown
“Don’t stop until you’re proud.”
– Unknown
“Limit your ‘always’ and your ‘nevers.’”
– Amy Poehler
“Where there is a woman, there is magic.”
– Ntozake Shange
“Real queens fix each other’s crowns.”
– Unknown
“It’s up to you now. This is your life so make it yours.”
– Sarah Kelly
“Am I good enough? Yes, I am.”
– Michelle Obama
“Let your compassion fuel your passion.”
– Achea Redd
“No today doesn’t mean no tomorrow.”
– Yvonne Orji
“Practice creates confidence. Confidence empowers you.”
– Simone Biles
“She remembered who she was, and the game changed.”
– Lalah Delia
“There is more to life than being a passenger.”
– Amelia Earhart
Motivational Quotes for Women to Help You Reach Your Dream
“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”
– Eleanor Roosevelt
“I never dreamed about success. I worked for it.”
– Estée Lauder
“If people are doubting how far you can go, go so far that you can’t hear them anymore.”
– Michele Ruiz
“Chance is the first step you take; luck is what comes afterward.”
– Amy Tan
“No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars or sailed to an uncharted land.”
– Helen Keller
“Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do something. Especially not yourself.”
– Mindy Kaling
“The question isn’t who’s going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.”
– Ayn Rand
“Look closely at the present you are constructing: it should look like the future you are dreaming.”
– Alice Walker
“Ditch the dream and be a doer.”
– Shonda Rhimes
“Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.”
– Gloria Steinem
“Stay committed and consistent and you will achieve your goals. Never give up.”
– Kelly Rowland
“You never know if you can actually do something against all odds until you actually do it.”
– Abby Wambach
“Aim at a high mark and you’ll hit it. No, not the first time, nor the second time. Maybe not the third. But keep on aiming and keep on shooting, for only practice will make you perfect.”
– Annie Oakley
“The most effective way to do it is to do it.”
– Amelia Earhart
“Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement.”
– Golda Meir
“We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained.”
– Marie Curie
“Never be limited by other people’s limited imaginations.”
– Mae Jemison
“Instead of looking at the past, I put myself ahead twenty years and try to look at what I need to do now in order to get there then.”
– Diana Ross
“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
“What’s the world for if you can’t make it up the way you want it?”
– Toni Morrison
“When someone tells you that you can’t, figure out how you can.”
– Clarice Lam
Inspirational Quotes for Women to Get You Through the Hard Times
“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
“It’s not about how many times you get rejected or fall down or are beaten up; it’s about how many times you stand up and are brave and you keep on going.”
– Lady Gaga
“There is nothing stronger than a broken woman who has rebuilt herself.”
– Hannah Gadsby
“I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.”
– Maya Angelou
“Giving up doesn’t always mean you’re weak. Sometimes you’re just strong enough to let go.”
– Taylor Swift
“Life is not so much what you accomplish as what you overcome.”
– Robin Roberts
“I’m not afraid of storms, for I’m learning how to sail my ship.”
– Louisa May Alcott
“When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as if you couldn’t hold on a minute longer, never give up then, for that’s just the place and time that the tide’ll turn.”
– Harriet Beecher Stowe
“The warrior knows that her heartbreak is her map.”
– Glennon Doyle
“It’s the rough side of the mountain that’s the easiest to climb; the smooth side doesn’t have anything for you to hang on to.”
– Aretha Franklin
“When you feel broken by life’s painful moments, realize you are as resilient as sea glass, a bottle broken by the movement of the waves, but still beautiful.”
– Virginia Buckingham
“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.”
– Helen Keller
“My best successes came on the heels of failure.”
– Barbara Corcoran
“For every failure, there’s an alternative course of action. You just have to find it. When you come to a roadblock, take a detour.”
– Mary Kay Ash
“We may encounter many defeats, but we must not be defeated.”
– Maya Angelou
“All the people who knock me down only inspire me to do better.”
– Selena Gomez
“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
“Nothing in life is to be feared; it is only to be understood.”
– Marie Curie
“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.”
– Eleanor Roosevelt
“I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear.”
– Rosa Parks
Empowering Quotes About Strong Women
“Don’t mistake politeness for lack of strength.”
– Sonia Sotomayor
“A strong woman looks a challenge dead in the eye and gives it a wink.”
– Gina Carey
“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
“Every woman’s success should be an inspiration to another. We’re strongest when we cheer each other on.”
– Serena Williams
“Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for all women.”
– Maya Angelou
“A woman is like a tea bag – you can’t tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water.”
– Eleanor Roosevelt
“Do not live someone else’s life and someone else’s idea of what womanhood is. Womanhood is you.”
– Viola Davis
“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
“A woman with a voice is, by definition, a strong woman. But the search to find that voice can be remarkably difficult.”
– Melinda Gates
“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
“The best protection any woman can have is courage.”
– Elizabeth Cady Stanton
“At some point in a woman’s life, she just gets tired of being ashamed all the time. After that, she is free to become whoever she truly is.”
– Elizabeth Gilbert
“How wrong it is for a woman to expect the man to build the world she wants, rather than to create it herself.”
– Anaïs Nin
“I do not wish women to have power over men, but over themselves.”
– Mary Wollstonecraft
“A strong woman is a woman determined to do something others are determined not be done.”
– Marge Piercy
“I am a woman and a warrior. If you think I can’t be both, you’ve been lied to.”
– Jennifer Zeynab Joukhadar
“Here’s to strong women: May we know them. May we be them. May we raise them.”
– Unknown
“After all those years as a woman hearing ‘not thin enough, not pretty enough, not smart enough, not this enough, not that enough,’ almost overnight I woke up one morning and thought, ‘I’m enough.’”
– Anna Quindlen
“Behind every great woman… is another great woman.”
– Kate Hodges
“When women support each other, incredible things happen.”
– Unknown
“Women have always been the strong ones of the world.”
– Coco Chanel
Leadership Quotes by Women for Success on Your Own Terms
“If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.”
– Shirley Chisholm
“If you’re not making mistakes, then you’re not making decisions.”
– Catherine Cook
“If your actions create a legacy that inspires others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, then you are an excellent leader.”
– Dolly Parton
“If you want anything said, ask a man; if you want anything done, ask a woman.”
– Margaret Thatcher
“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
“In the future, there will be no female leaders. There will just be leaders.”
– Sheryl Sandberg
“Women belong in all places where decisions are being made. It shouldn’t be that women are the exception.”
– Ruth Bader Ginsburg
“A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don’t necessarily want to go, but ought to be.”
– Rosalynn Carter
“If you want to improve the organization, you have to improve yourself, and the organization gets pulled up with you.”
– Indra Nooyi
“Leadership is a series of behaviors rather than a role for heroes.”
– Margaret Wheatley
“When the whole world is silent, even one voice becomes powerful.”
– Malala Yousafzai
“Once you’ve taken your seat at the table, it’s your job to pull out a chair for the others, too. Look for the others. Acknowledge them. Build a platform for them.”
– Bianca Bass