25 Quotes to Inspire Confidence

If you wish you felt more confident, you’re not alone. Everyone experiences fear and uncertainty at some point in their lives. Everyone has a lack of confidence about something. If you are striving to do new things or pushing your boundaries, it can be difficult to stay confident, even if you’re usually a confident person.

Unfortunately, confidence doesn’t just show up at your door one day, even though you may wish it would. In fact, confidence comes from trying new things, overcoming fear, and reaching for your dreams.

For me, a good example is my lack of confidence around public speaking. I used to really struggle with public speaking, and I still prefer to over-prepare for presentations. This past week, however, I was unexpectedly asked, while already standing in front of a large crowd, to give an impromptu presentation of one of my training seminars. I cringed for a moment but accepted the challenge and the talk went really well. I work to overcome my fear of public speaking through giving many talks and presentations, and it has really increased my confidence level. In this example, I was able to do something that I never would have thought I’d be able to do.

You may have a similar story in your own life. Take a moment and think back to a time when you’ve been able to overcome a challenge of your own. How did that feel? The good news is that confidence spreads to other areas of your life. If you’ve been able to increase your confidence in one area, you can most certainly increase your confidence in other areas as well!

Here are 25 quotes that will inspire you to be more confident today:

1. “Believe in yourself and there will come a day when others will have no choice but to believe with you.” ~ Cynthia Kersey

2. “Remember, happiness doesn’t depend upon who you are or what you have; it depends solely upon what you think. So start each day by thinking of all the things you have to be thankful for. Your future will depend very largely on the thoughts you think today. So think thoughts of hope and confidence and love and success.” ~ Dale Carnegie

3. “Don’t wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions. So what. Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful.” ~Mark Victor Hansen

4. “What could we accomplish if we knew we could not fail?” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

5. “When you stop living your life based on what others think of you real life begins. At that moment, you will finally see the door of self acceptance opened.” ~ Shannon L. Alder

6. “The best lightning rod for your protection is your own spine.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

7. “You have a masterpiece inside you, you know. One unlike any that has ever been created, or ever will be. If you go to your grave without painting your masterpiece, it will not get painted. No one else can paint it. Only you.” ~ Gordon MacKenzie

8. “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

9. “We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same.”~ Carlos Castaneda

10. “Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.” ~ Dale Carnegie

11. “Lack of confidence, sometimes alternating with unrealistic dreams of heroic success, often leads to procrastination, and many studies suggest that procrastinators are self-handicappers: rather than risk failure, they prefer to create conditions that make success impossible, a reflex that of course creates a vicious cycle.” ~ James Surowiecki

12. “You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.’ You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

13. “Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi

14. “If being an egomaniac means I believe in what I do and in my art or music, then in that respect you can call me that… I believe in what I do, and I’ll say it.” ~ John Lennon

15. “And no one will listen to us until we listen to ourselves.” ~ Marianne Williamson

16. “You have 100% control over yourself, and your life. It is up to you to stop giving your power away, and to decide what you want to be, do, or have…and go after it.” ~ B. Dave Walters

17. “You’ve got to be sure of yourself before you can ever win a prize.” ~ Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich

18. “Confidence is going after Moby Dick in a rowboat and taking the tartar sauce with you.” ~ Zig Ziglar

19. “The deep roots never doubt spring will come.” ~ Marty Rubin

20. “No man has the right to dictate what other men should perceive, create or produce, but all should be encouraged to reveal themselves, their perceptions and emotions, and to build confidence in the creative spirit.” ~ Ansel Adams

21.“Self respect, self worth and self love, all start with self. Stop looking outside of yourself for your value.” ~ Rob Liano

22. “Health is the greatest possession. Contentment is the greatest treasure. Confidence is the greatest friend.” ~ Lao Tzu

23. “True confidence is not about what you take from someone to restore yourself, but what you give back to your critics because they need it more than you do.” ~ Shannon L. Alder

24. “Confidence doesn’t come from what you think you know, it comes from what you already know.” ~ Abdulkadir Abdullahi Mohamed Mirre

25. “You’re only given one little spark of madness. You mustn’t lose it.” ~ Robin Williams

What quote inspires you to be more confident? Share your quote in the comments below.