Today is the 8th of March and it’s International Women’s Day.
A powerful celebration of the strength, smarts and resilience of women throughout history and in daily life. A reminder of how far we have come but also how far we have to go with equality for women in the world.
To help celebrate this day and lift up female voices I’d like to share 101 of the most powerful and inspirational quotes by women who have paved the way and shaped our world in the past few hundreds of years.
I hope you will find something helpful, empowering and something that makes you think here.
Inspirational Women’s Day Quotes
“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
“I’m not going to limit myself just because people won’t accept the fact that I can do something else.”
– Dolly Parton
“A woman is the full circle. Within her is the ability to create, nurture, and transform.”
– Diane Mariechild
“Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement.”
– Golda Meir
“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.”
– Anais Nin
“I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear.”
– Rosa Parks
“Every woman’s success should be an inspiration to another. We’re strongest when we cheer each other on.”
– Serena Williams
“Passion is energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you.”
– Oprah Winfrey
“Whatever you do, be different – that was the advice my mother gave me, and I can’t think of better advice for an entrepreneur. If you’re different, you will stand out.”
– Anita Roddick
“Our deepest wishes are whispers of our authentic self. We must learn to respect them. We must learn to listen.”
– Sarah Ban Breathnach
“Nothing is impossible. The word itself says ‘I’m possible!’”
– Audrey Hepburn
“You must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right.”
– Rosa Parks
“We need to reshape our own perception of how we view ourselves. We have to step up as women and take the lead.”
– Beyoncé
“Behind every great woman… is another great woman.”
– Kate Hodges
“Women belong in all places where decisions are being made. It shouldn’t be that women are the exception.”
– Ruth Bader Ginsburg
“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”
– Eleanor Roosevelt
“Always be a first-rate version of yourself instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.”
– Judy Garland
“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.”
– Maya Angelou
“The most effective way to do it, is to do it.”
– Amelia Earhart
“You have what it takes to be a victorious, independent, fearless woman.”
– Tyra Banks
“We must believe that we are gifted for something, and that this thing must be attained.”
– Marie Curie
“Women are the real architects of society.”
– Harriet Beecher Stowe
“The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.”
– Ayn Rand
“The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.”
– Eleanor Roosevelt
Motivational Women’s Day Quotes for the Hard Times
“You have to believe in yourself when no one else does.”
– Serena Williams
“Doubt is a killer. You just have to know what you stand for and go for it.”
– Venus Williams
“There is nothing stronger than a broken woman who has rebuilt herself.”
– Hannah Gadsby
“I always did something I was a little not ready to do. I think that’s how you grow.”
– Marissa Mayer
“I’m not afraid of storms, for I’m learning how to sail my ship.”
– Mary Louise Alcott
“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.”
– Eleanor Roosevelt
“Whatever anybody says or does, assume positive intent. You will be amazed at how your whole approach to a person or problem becomes very different.”
– Indra Nooyi
“Fearlessness is like a muscle. I know from my own life that the more I exercise it the more natural it becomes to not let my fears run me.”
– Arianna Huffington
“Success is getting what you want; happiness is wanting what you get.”
– Ingrid Bergman
“On my own I will just create, and if it works, it works, and if it doesn’t, I’ll create something else. I don’t have any limitations on what I think I could do or be.”
– Oprah Winfrey
“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.”
– Alice Walker
“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.”
– Helen Keller
“When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak.”
– Audre Lorde
“I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept.”
– Angela Davis
“A woman with a voice is by definition a strong woman. But the search to find that voice can be remarkably difficult.”
– Melinda Gates
“Don’t be intimidated by what you don’t know. That can be your greatest strength and ensure you do things differently from everyone else.”
– Sarah Blakely
“We cannot change what we are not aware of, and once we are aware, we cannot help but change.”
– Sheryl Sandberg
“Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another stepping stone to greatness.”
– Oprah Winfrey
“Stop waiting to find the light at the end of the tunnel and be the light for yourself.”
– Unknown
“The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.”
– Coco Chanel
“Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, ‘I will try again tomorrow.’”
– Mary Anne Radmacher
Uplifting Quotes on Strong and Confident Women
“When anyone tells me I can’t do anything… I’m just not listening anymore.”
– Florence Griffith Joyner
“I can’t think of any better representation of beauty than someone who is unafraid to be herself.”
– Emma Stone
“Do not live someone else’s life and someone else’s idea of what womanhood is. Womanhood is you.”
– Viola Davis
“I’m tough, I’m ambitious, and I know exactly what I want. If that makes me a bitch, okay.”
– Madonna
“Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be but a challenge to others.”
– Amelia Earhart
“I never dreamed about success. I worked for it.”
– Estée Lauder
“There’s something so special about a woman who dominates in a man’s world. It takes a certain grace, strength, intelligence, fearlessness, and the nerve to never take no for an answer.”
– Rihanna
“Leadership is about making others better as a result of your presence and making sure that impact lasts in your absence.”
– Sheryl Sandberg
“We need to get women to the point where they aren’t apologizing. It’s time to take ownership in our success.”
– Tori Burch
“People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.”
– Susan Wojcicki
“A strong woman is a woman determined to do something others are determined not be done.”
– Marge Piercy
“Leadership is a series of behaviors rather than a role for heroes.”
– Margaret Wheatley
“The most beautiful thing a woman can wear is confidence.”
– Blake Lively
“A woman with a voice is, by definition, a strong woman.”
– Melinda Gates
“Strong women don’t have ‘attitudes’, we have standards.”
– Marilyn Monroe
“You don’t have to play masculine to be a strong woman.”
– Mary Elizabeth Winstead
“A strong woman looks a challenge in the eye and gives it a wink.”
– Gina Carey
“A strong woman stands up for herself. A stronger woman stands up for everyone else.”
– Unknown
“True leadership stems from individuality that is honestly and sometimes imperfectly expressed… Leaders should strive for authenticity over perfection.”
– Sheryl Sandberg
“A woman should be like a single flower—not a whole bouquet.”
– Anna Held
Women’s Day Quotes for Empowerment and Equality
“What’s the greatest lesson a woman should learn? That since day one, she’s already had everything she needs within herself. It’s the world that convinced her she did not.”
– Rupi Kaur
“Each time a woman stands up for herself she stands up for all women.”
– Maya Angelou
“I want every girl to know that her voice can change the world.”
– Malala Yousafzai
“Where there is a woman, there is magic.”
– Ntozake Shange
“Girls should never be afraid to be smart.”
– Emma Watson
“The first problem for all of us, men and women, is not to learn, but to unlearn.”
– Gloria Steinem
“How wrong it is for a woman to expect the man to build the world she wants rather than to create it herself.”
– Anais Nin
“Great leaders are those who trust their gut.”
– Indra Nooyi
“You alone are enough. You have nothing to prove to anybody.”
– Maya Angelou
“I do not wish women to have power over men, but over themselves.”
– Mary Shelley
“Feminism isn’t about making women strong. Women are already strong. It’s about changing the way the world perceives that strength.”
– G.D. Anderson
“If you improve the organization, you have to improve yourself and the organization gets pulled up with you.”
– Indra Nooyi
“I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.”
– Audre Lorde
“There is no limit to what we, as women, can accomplish.”
– Michelle Obama
“Human rights are women’s rights, and women’s rights are human rights.”
– Hillary Clinton
“We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.”
– Anais Nin
“Women are the largest untapped reservoir of talent in the world.”
– Hillary Clinton
“Don’t think about making women fit the world—think about making the world fit women.”
– Gloria Steinem
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.”
– Margaret Mead
“If you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman.”
– Margaret Thatcher
Short Women’s Day Quotes
“She believed she could, so she did.”
– R.S. Grey
“Well-behaved women seldom make history.”
– Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
“A girl should be two things: who and what she wants.”
– Coco Chanel
“Females are strong as hell.”
– The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
“I dwell in possibility.”
– Emily Dickinson
“What makes you different or weird, that’s your strength.”
– Meryl Streep
“Love yourself first and everything else falls into line.”
– Lucille Ball
“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.”
– Anais Nin
“Done is better than perfect.”
– Sheryl Sandberg
“It is our choices and the actions we take that show what we are, far more than our thoughts.”
– Unknown
“When the whole world is silent, even one voice becomes powerful.”
– Malala Yousafzai
“Women are the real superheroes.”
– Vanessa Paradis
“The power of women united is unstoppable.”
– Unknown
“Always concentrate on how far you have come.”
– Heidi Johnson
“One’s philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes.”
– Eleanor Roosevelt
“My life didn’t please me, so I created my life.”
– Coco Chanel
Want more uplifting inspiration? Have a look at these words of encouragement for women, the top 7 fundamentals for making life an adventure from Eleanor Roosevelt here and these words of wisdom from Anais Nin. Plus, this one with tips about living life the way you want it from Helen Keller.