25 Quotes for Revolutionary Self-Love
Consider this your Monday motivation
Love yourself.
No, seriously. Just for this one day, do it. It’s probably not going to hurt anything if you go all day basking in your own love for yourself. What’s the worst that could happen? People might figure out how to treat you? You might be less inclined to put up with low-vibe behavior?
It’s the start of yet another week in a year filled with uncertainty. To wear masks or not to. To go out or not to. To speak out or not to. I can’t remember a year more fraught with stress — where even public health has been made into a political issue.
Well, the personal is political, and this year is pretty damn personal for a lot of us. Want to know something else that’s personal? Self-love. I’ve heard it said that self-love is a revolutionary act. It’s true. In a year that feels out of control, loving ourselves can be our one act of defiance.
But a year is a lot to ask. Let’s start with today.
- Audre Lorde: “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson: “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”
- Brene Brown: “Owning our story and loving ourselves through that process is the bravest thing that we’ll ever do.”
- Walt Whitman: “I celebrate myself, and sing myself.”
- Glennon Doyle: “I’ll abandon everyone else’s expectations of me before I’ll abandon myself. I’ll disappoint everyone else before I’ll disappoint myself. I’ll forsake all others before I’ll forsake myself. Me and myself: We are till death do us part.”
- Maya Angelou: “I learned a long time ago the wisest thing I can do is be on my own side, be an advocate for myself and others like me.”
- Eartha Kitt: “It’s all about falling in love with yourself and sharing that love with someone who appreciates you, rather than looking for love to compensate for a self love deficit.”
- Cheryl Strayed: “Don’t surrender all your joy for an idea you used to have about yourself that isn’t true anymore.”
- Veronika A. Shoffstall: “Plant your own garden and decorate your own soul, instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers.”
- Anne Lamott: “I naively believe that self-love is 80 percent of the solution, that it helps beyond words to take yourself through the day as you would with your most beloved mental-patient relative, with great humor and lots of small treats.”
- Beyoncé: “It’s really about changing the conversation. It’s not about perfection. It’s about purpose. We have to care about our bodies and what we put in them. Women have to take the time to focus on our mental health — take time for self, for the spiritual, without feeling guilty or selfish. The world will see you the way you see you, and treat you the way you treat yourself.”
- bell hooks: “When we can see ourselves as we truly are and accept ourselves, we build the necessary foundation for self-love…whether we learn how to love ourselves and others will depend on the presence of a loving environment. Self love cannot flourish in isolation.”
- Rumi: “Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”
- Rupi Kaur: “how you love yourself is how you teach others to love you”
- SARK: “Remember to delight yourself first, then others can be truly delighted.”
- Andre Gide: “Loving yourself isn’t vanity. It’s sanity.”
- Nayyirah Waheed: “i love myself.’ the quietest. simplest. most powerful. revolution. ever.”
- Buddha: “You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection”
- Queen Latifah: “I had to grow to love my body. I did not have a good self image at first. Finally it occurred to me, I’m either going to love me or hate me. And I chose to love myself. Then everything kind of sprung from there. Things that I thought weren’t attractive became sexy. Confidence makes you sexy.”
- Louise L. Hay: “You have been criticizing yourself for years, and it hasn’t worked. Try approving of yourself and see what happens.”
- Anais Nin: “And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.”
- Mandy Hale: “Sometimes it takes being left seemingly with nothing to realize that you are everything. To see that you held the key to your own happiness and self-worth and belonging and wholeness all along.”
- Jean Shinoda Bolen: “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.”
- Dr. Seuss: “Be who you are and say what you feel, because in the end those who matter don’t mind and those who mind don’t matter.”
- Helen Keller: “To love oneself is the beginning of a life-long romance.”
Now, go out there and love yourself. It will make you happy. And it might even make the world a better place.