“I am in charge of how I feel, and today I am choosing happiness,” Maya Angelou once said.
There’s a reason famous quotes are shared so widely; they help us find the words we need when the ones we have just don’t do the job. Whether it’s in a speech, story, or your daily affirmation practice, quotes give us power and connection.
Affirmations are a fabulous tool in our self-care practices. They help us build confidence, reduce stress, and increase our emotional resilience as we deal with all the new things life throws our way.
They’re also kind of fun to find, create, and fine-tune to fit our own unique circumstances and help us feel supported and grounded as we all navigate the delicate terrain of our individual mental health.
A great way to start in your journey to finding the perfect positive affirmations is to explore quotes from other brilliant minds.
As lovers and sharers of positive news (we publish good news online, in our free newsletter, on our positive podcast, and our beautiful monthly Goodnewspaper), we’re big positive affirmation enthusiasts and have helped collect some affirmation quotes to help you find what sticks for you.
Explore our main article of The Best Positive Affirmations and all of our other collections of positive affirmations:
- Positive Morning Affirmations
- Positive Affirmations for Kids
- Positive Affirmations for Men
- Positive Affirmations for Anxiety
- Motivational Positive Affirmations
- Self-Confidence Positive Affirmations
- Short Positive Affirmations
- Self-Care Affirmations
- Affirmation Quotes
- ... and of course, explore our curated collection of positive quotes
As you delve into these affirmation quotes, think about how they’ve been passed through people and communities to find their way to you today. Hold onto what feels good, and release what doesn’t.
This is a list designed to make your affirmation practice less overwhelming, and we hope we leave you feeling more hopeful and confident. Let’s get to it!
Best Positive Affirmation Quotes
“I am deliberate and afraid of nothing.”
— Audre Lorde
“I can and I will. Watch me.”
— Carrie Green
“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”
— Eleanor Roosevelt
“You have within you right now, everything you need to deal with whatever the world can throw at you.”
— Brian Tracy
“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.”
— Alice Walker
“You are the one that possesses the keys to your being. You carry the passport to your own happiness.”
— Diane von Fürstenberg
“I am in charge of how I feel and today I am choosing happiness.”
— Maya Angelou
“I am not afraid; I was born to do this.”
— Joan of Arc
“Believe in yourself and all that you are. Know that there is something inside you that is greater than any obstacle.”
— Christian D. Larson
“I am stronger than my challenges, and my challenges are making me stronger.”
— Karen Salmansohn
“The braver I am, the luckier I get.”
— Glennon Doyle
“I have met myself and I am going to care for her fiercely.”
— Glennon Doyle
“I am never going to give up working to protect and restore this magnificent planet.”
— Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson
“I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become.”
— Carl Gustav Jung
“I am not afraid of storms for I am learning how to sail my ship.”
— Amy March
“Even if it makes others uncomfortable, I will love who I am.”
— Janelle Monáe
“I need to be outside. I need to be in the world and to remember that I am of it.”
— John Green
“I choose to make the rest of my life the best of my life.”
— Louise Hay
“The love and attention you always thought you wanted from someone else, is the love and attention you first need to give to yourself.”
— Bryant McGillns
“I am a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.”
— Maya Angelou
“I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept.”
— Angela Davis
“You are not what you’ve done. You are what you keep doing.”
— Jack Butcher
“What separates privilege from entitlement is gratitude.”
— Brené Brown
“I will love the light for it shows me the way, yet I will endure the darkness because it shows me the stars.”
— Og Mandino
“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
“Living in a state of gratitude is the gateway to grace.”
— Arianna Huffington
“What I am trying to cultivate is not blind optimism… but radical hope.”
— Junot Diaz
“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”
— Eleanor Roosevelt
“Hear me as a woman
Have me as your sister
On purpled battlefield breaking day,
So I might say our victory is just beginning,
See me as change,
Say I am movement,
That I am the year
And I am the era
Of the women.”
— Amanda Gorman
“I choose to make the rest of my life the best of my life.”
— Louise Hay
“You must do the things you think you cannot do.”
— Eleanor Roosevelt
“Do not wait for someone else to come and speak for you. It’s you who can change the world.”
— Malala Yousafzai
“Gratitude opens the door to the power, the wisdom, the creativity of the universe. You open the door through gratitude.”
— Deepak Chopra
“I am not interested in picking up crumbs of compassion thrown from the table of someone who considers himself my master. I want the full menu of rights.”
— Archbishop Desmond Tutu
“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”
— Mahatma Gandhi
“Be you, love you. All ways, always.”
— Alexandra Elle
“We need to replace your vicious stress cycle with a vicious cycle of self-care.”
— Dr. Sara Gottfried
“The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”
— Nelson Mandela
