Everyone has days when they need extra motivation to lift their spirits and keep going. Sometimes all it takes is the right words of encouragement and self-acceptance. Quotes can be just what you need.
In this blog article, we’ve compiled a collection of inspiring self-acceptance quotes to help you discover your inner strength.
The best self-acceptance quotes
1. “A man cannot be comfortable without his approval.” – Mark Twain
You will also enjoy our article on be yourself quotes.
2. “I am Dead, but it’s not so bad. I’ve learned to live with it.” – Isaac Marion
3. “We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves.” – Dalai Lama XIV
4. “You’re always with yourself, so you might as well enjoy the company.” – Diane Von Furstenberg
5. “Die while alive and be thoroughly dead. Then do what you will, and all will be well.” – Philip Kapleau
6. “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
7. “Every woman that finally figured out her worth, has picked up her suitcases of pride and boarded a flight to freedom, which landed in the valley of change.” – Shannon L. Alder
8. “Love yourself first and everything else falls into line. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world.” – Lucille Ball
9. “Have a big enough heart to love unconditionally, and a broad enough mind to embrace the differences that make each of us unique.”- D.B. Harrop
10. “The art of acceptance is the art of making someone who has just done you a small favor wish that he might have done you a greater one.”- Martin Luther King, Jr.
11. “Some people believe holding on and hanging in there are signs of great strength. However, there are times when it takes much more strength to know when to let go and then do it.”- Ann Landers
12. “It is easier to make our wishes conform to our means than to make our means conform to our wishes.” – Robert E. Lee
13. “Acceptance doesn’t mean that life gets better; it just means that my way of living life on life’s terms improves.” – Sharon E. Rainey
Self-acceptance quotes to help you find happiness
14. “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
15. “Accept – then act. Accept it as if you had chosen whatever the present moment contains. Always work with it, not against it.” – Eckhart Tolle
16. “Live your life, sing your song. Not full of expectations. Not for the ovations. But for the joy of it.” – Rasheed Ogunlaru
17. “Nobody’s going to win all the time. On the highway of life, you can’t always be in the fast lane.” – Haruki Murakami
18. “The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.” – Alan Watts
19. “Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced.” – James Baldwin
20. “I’m not okay, you’re not okay, and that’s okay.” – William Sloane Coffin
21. “When you find peace within yourself, you become the kind of person who can live at peace with others.” – Peace Pilgrim
22. “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
23. “Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, and confusion into clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.” – Melody Beattie
24. “A friend is one to whom one may pour out the contents of one’s heart, chaff and grain together, knowing that gentle hands will take and sift it, keep what is worth keeping, and with a breath of kindness, blow the rest away.” – George Eliot
Self acceptance quotes to empower you
25. “When you find peace within yourself, you become the kind of person who can live at peace with others.” – Peace Pilgrim
26. “Acceptance of one’s life has nothing to do with resignation; it does not mean running away from the struggle. On the contrary, it means accepting it as it comes, with all the handicaps of heredity, of suffering, of psychological complexes and injustices.” – Paul Tournier
If you’re enjoying these quotes, make sure to check out our collection of psychology quotes that will help you understand yourself.
27. “A friend gives you total freedom to be yourself—and especially to feel, or not feel. Whatever you happen to be feeling at any moment is fine with them. That’s what real love amounts to – letting a person be what he is.” – Jim Morrison
28. “The more you know who you are and what you want, the less you let things upset you.” – Stephanie Perkins, Anna, and the French Kiss
29. “Letting go doesn’t mean you don’t care about someone anymore. It just realizes that the only person you really have control over is yourself.” – Deborah Reber, Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul
30. “Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune.” – William James
31. “Happiness can exist only in acceptance.” – George Orwell
32. “To be fully seen by somebody, then, and be loved anyhow—this is a human offering that can border on miraculous.” – Elizabeth Gilbert, Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage
33. “As you become clearer about who you really are, you’ll be better able to decide what is best for you – the first time around.” – Oprah Winfrey
34. “No intelligent idea can gain general acceptance unless some stupidity is mixed in with it.” – Fernando Pessoa
35. “The acceptance of death gives you more of a stake in life, in living life happily, as it should be lived. Living for the moment.” – Sting
Self-acceptance quotes on being kind with yourself
36. “We are all going, I thought, and it applies to turtles and turtlenecks, Alaska the girl and Alaska the place, because nothing can last, not even the earth itself. The Buddha said that suffering was caused by desire, we’d learned, and that the cessation of desire meant the cessation of suffering. When you stopped wishing things wouldn’t fall apart, you’d stop suffering when they did.” – John Green, Looking for Alaska
37. “The first step toward change is awareness. The second step is acceptance.” – Nathaniel Branden
38. “Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.” – Lao Tzu
39. “Many of us crucify ourselves between two thieves – regret for the past and fear of the future.” – Fulton Oursler
40. “Generally speaking, the Way of the warrior is resolute acceptance of death.” – Miyamoto Musashi
41. “My happiness grows in direct proportion to my acceptance, and in inverse proportion to my expectations.” – Michael J. Fox
42. “Understanding is the first step to acceptance, and only with acceptance can there be recovery.” – J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
43. “Marriage equality is about more than just marriage. It’s about something greater. It’s about acceptance.” – Charlize Theron
44. “For after all, the best thing one can do when it is raining is let it rain.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
If you’re enjoying these quotes, you’ll love our collection of rain quotes that will help wash away the stress and bring you the happiness you deserve.
45. “Wisdom. . .is knowing what you have to accept.”― Wallace Stegner
Self-acceptance quotes and sayings to inspire you
46. “What self-acceptance does is open up more possibilities of succeeding because you aren’t fighting yourself along the way.” ― Shannon Ables
47. “Self-acceptance is my refusal to be in an adversarial relationship to myself.” – Nathaniel Branden
48. “Friendship with oneself is all-important because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world.” ― Eleanor Roosevelt
49. “Accept yourself, love yourself, and keep moving forward.” – Roy Bennett
50. “I don’t need anyone else to distract me from myself anymore, like I always thought I would.” ― Charlotte Eriksson
51. “Change is possible, but it must start with self-acceptance.” – Alexander Lowen
52. “No amount of self-improvement can make up for any lack of self-acceptance.” ― Robert Holden
53. “Accept everything about yourself I mean everything, You are you and that is the beginning and the end no apologies, no regrets.” – Henry A. Kissinger
54. “Self-love has very little to do with how you feel about your outer self. It’s about accepting all of yourself.” ― Tyra Banks
55. “Acceptance is the key to everything.” – Michael J Fox
56. “Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.” – Siddhārtha Gautama
More self-acceptance quotes and sayings
57. “The most terrifying thing is to accept oneself completely.” – C.G. Jung
58. “Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experience that reveals the human spirit.” – E.E. Cummings
59. “The more you find yourself doing things you love, the more you’ll love yourself for doing them.” – Tiffany Stoffer
60. “Self-acceptance is how to find peace with one’s soul.” – Oscar Auliq-Ice
61. “You are you, no one else is you, you are the right you, and the right you, is the you that you love.” – Ya’ira Somerville
62. “To accept any sort of change, you must realize that you do not have control over everything in your life.” – Auliq Ice
63. “With self-acceptance, we can choose compassion and forgiveness over anger and self-hatred.” – Michelle Cruz-Rosado
64. “Be like a river. Be open. Flow.” – Julie Connor
65. “There’s no alternative to being yourself. Accept it, honour it, value it – and get on with it.” – Rasheed Ogunlaru
66. “Be someone you’d like to know yourself.”― Dahi Tamara Koch
67. “Forgiveness is the path to Healing; Healing is the path to Self-acceptance.”― J.R. Incer
68. “Be comfortable in your black skin. If someone finds a threat in it, then they should visit their psychologist. ”― Mitta Xinindlu
69. “The beauty you see in others is the true reflection behind the lens of the real person you see in yourself.”― Germany Kent
70. “Only in solitude can you discover a sense of your own beauty.”― John O’Donohue
Self-acceptance quotes about the power of loving yourself
71. “You are very powerful, provided you know how powerful you are.” — Yogi Bhajan
72. “Self-acceptance has been a blessed byproduct of middle age.” — Candice Bergen
73. “My willingness to be intimate with my own deep feelings creates the space for intimacy with another.” — Shakti Gawain
74. “To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself.” — Nhat Hanh
75. “Self-approval and self-acceptance in the now are the main keys to positive changes in every area of our lives.” — Louise Hay
76. “I now see how owning our story and loving ourselves through that process is the bravest thing that we will ever do.” — Brene Brown
77. “Becoming acquainted with yourself is a price well worth paying for the love that will really address your needs.” — Daphne Rose Kingma
78. “I seem to have the blind self-acceptance of the eccentric who can’t conceive that his eccentricities are not clearly understood.” — Saul Bellow
79. “To be nobody but yourself in a world that’s doing its best to make you somebody else, is to fight the hardest battle you are ever going to fight. Never stop fighting.” — E. E. Cummings
80. “Self-acceptance begets acceptance from others, which begets even deeper, more genuine self-acceptance. It can be done. But no one is going to bestow it on you. It is a gift only you can give yourself.” — Camryn Manheim
Self-Acceptance Quotes To Encourage Self Love
81. “The first step in this process of mindfulness is radical self-acceptance.” ― Stephen Batchelor
82. “Nothing I accept about myself can be used against me to diminish me.” ― Audre Lorde
83. “The courage to be is the courage to accept oneself, despite being unacceptable.” ― Paul Tillich
84. “Being authentic begins with unconditional self-acceptance – imperfections and all.” ― Azim Jamal and Brian Tracy
85. “Everything begins with accepting oneself. Without self-acceptance, one cannot accomplish anything.” ― Xuan-Thu Nguyen
86. “Accept yourself: flaws, quirks, talents, secret thoughts, all of it, and experience true liberation.” ― Amy Leigh Mercree
87. “Maturity, one discovers, has everything to do with the acceptance of ‘not knowing.’” ― Mark Z. Danielewski
88. “Whether you’re as healthy as you should be or not, that doesn’t disallow you to look your best. Style is only possible from a place of self-acceptance.” ― Stacy London
89. “I think once I kind of got to a place of self-acceptance, looking past all the insecurities that I have, I’ve really grown so much as a person.” ― Shannon Purser.
90. “If a person lacks self-acceptance, he can’t live with himself; if he lacks self-criticism, others can’t live with him.” — James Pike
Quotes on Self-Acceptance To Give You Courage
91. “Much of spiritual life is self-acceptance, maybe all of it.” ― Jack Kornfield
92. “The greatest miracle you can hope for is self-acceptance.” ― Maxwell Maltz
93. “Self-acceptance is involved in this process. You have got to be able to look at both your dark and your light side and not get enamored or depressed by either.” ― Frederick Lindemann
94. “Your level of self-acceptance is determined largely by how well you feel the important people in your life accept you.” ― Brian Tracy
95. “Self-acceptance is self-love in action.” ― Jodi Livon
96. “Shame makes self-acceptance and self-love impossible.” ― bell hooks
97. “Belong… to yourself, the earth, and others. Above all, engage in “radical self-acceptance.” ― Sandra Schrift
98. “Belonging starts with self-acceptance… Believing that you’re enough is what gives you the courage to be authentic.” ― Brene Brown
99. “Success is total self-acceptance.” ― Viktor Frankl
100. “One woman filled with self-love and self-acceptance is a model more super than any cover girl.” ― Amy Leigh Mercree