23 Inspiring Self-Care and Self-Love Quotes

This year, I celebrated 4 years on the journey of self-love, self-awareness, and self-discovery. It seems surreal to think that there was a time in my life when my relationship with myself was so fractured that I thought there was no hope left—a time when I wanted to end my life.

It wasn’t just that I neglected my relationship with myself. To be honest, before I started this journey, I didn’t even know I had a relationship with myself. I thought I had relationships with the people of the past who hurt me, the people of the present who disappointed me, and the people of the future who would save me. I never thought that the hurt, the disappointment, and eventually, the salvation were all coming from that mysterious stranger in the mirror.

Usually, I love telling you stories from my life and my work, sharing struggles and epiphanies. Today, I thought I’d do something different. I wanted to share some quotes about self-love and self-care that have inspired me throughout my journey.

These are quotes that have awakened within me the light of epiphany and returned to me in dark times to compel me to keep going, keep loving, keep healing. I hope that these words have just as profound of an effect on you.

1.  “You are not a mistake. You are not a problem to be solved. But you won’t discover this until you are willing to stop banging your head against the wall of shaming and caging and fearing yourself.” ~Geneen Roth
2. “Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.” ~Rainer Maria Rilke
3. “It ain’t what they call you, it’s what you answer to.” ~W.C. Fields
4. “Never apologize for showing feeling. When you do so, you apologize for the truth.” ~Benjamin Disraeli
5. “The time will come
   When, with elation,
   You will greet yourself arriving
   At your own door, in your own mirror,
   And will smile at the other’s welcome.” ~Derek Walcott
6. “When I loved myself enough, I began leaving whatever wasn’t healthy. This meant people, jobs, my own beliefs and habits – anything that kept me small.  My judgement called it disloyal. Now I see it as self-loving.” ~Kim McMillen
7. “She held herself until the sobs of the child inside subsided entirely. I love you, she told herself. It will all be okay.” ~H. Raven Rose
8. “When you adopt the viewpoint that there is nothing that exists that is not part of you, that there is no one who exists who is not part of you, that any judgment you make is self-judgment, that any criticism you level is self-criticism, you will wisely extend to yourself an unconditional love that will be the light of the world.” ~Harry Palmer
9. “Once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.” ~The Velveteen Rabbit
10. “If only you could sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to people you may never even dream of. There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person.” ~Fred Rogers
11. “Follow your inner moonlight; don’t hide the madness.” ~Allen Ginsberg
12. “Your greatest treasure hides behind your self-loathing. Love it out of hiding.” ~Pamela Mills
13. “I seek strength, not to be greater than other, but to fight my greatest enemy, the doubts within myself.” ~P.C. Cast
14. “This body holding me reminds me of my own mortality
    Embrace this moment, remember, we are eternal
    All this pain is an illusion” ~Tool
15. “Those who think they have not time for bodily exercise will sooner or later have to find time for illness.” ~Edward Stanley
16. “As I began to love myself I found that anguish and emotional suffering are only warning signs that I was living against my own truth. Today, I know, this is ‘Authenticity’”. ~Charlie Chaplin
17.  “It’s the heart afraid of breaking that never learns to dance.” ~Bette Midler
18. “Can you be happy with the movies, and the ads, and the clothes in the stores, and the doctors, and the eyes as you walk down the street all telling you there is something wrong with you? No. You cannot be happy. Because, you poor darling baby, you believe them.” ~Katherine Dunn
19. “Whatever you are doing, love yourself for doing it. Whatever you are feeling, love yourself for feeling it. ” ~Thaddeus Golas
20. “When you recover or discover something that nourishes your soul and brings joy, care enough about yourself to make room for it in your life.” ~Jean Shinoda Bolen
21. “Don’t ask yourself what the world needs, ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” ~Howard Washington Thurman
22. “Ring the bells that still can ring, forget your perfect offering, there’s a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.” ~Leonard Cohen
23. “To love oneself is the beginning of a life-long romance.” ~Oscar Wilde
24. “I am a big believer in the mirror test. All that matters is if you can look in the mirror and honestly tell the person you see there, that you’ve done your best.” ~John McKay
25. “To the question of your life, you are the only answer. To the problems of your life, you are the only solution.” ~Jo Coudert
26. “I will not hide my tastes or aversions. I will so trust that what is deep is holy, that I will do strongly before the sun and moon whatever only rejoices me, and the heart appoints.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

I hope you have enjoyed these quotes! If you are eager to take another step on your self-love journey, you’re invited to join the 30 Day Self-Love Challenge where you can explore your relationship with yourself deeper and connect with a worldwide tribe of fellow self-love seekers.

Whatever you choose and wherever you go next, I hope you go there holding your own hand. That’s all that really matters.

If you have some favourite self-care and self-love quotes, please feel free to share them in the comments below. Until next time! ♥

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