84 Empowering Quotes to Help You Take Control of Your Life
Empowerment has become a hot topic of our times, a buzz-word commonly integrated in the rhetoric of politicians, academics, activists and organizations. So, what does it mean to empower people or specific social groups? We can think of it as an alternative approach to the traditional, hierarchical and rigid models of authority. A development tool, aimed to increase engagement in the decision making process, allowing people to express their ideas, feel responsible and more confident, and get control of their own lives. The collection of famous empowering quotes that follows will try to put its meaning under the spotlight.
Empowerment means equality among all members of society, irrespective of gender, nationality, religion or political beliefs and this implies that it is necessary to provide more to the less advantaged members of society in order to ensure equality of opportunity. Men, women, minorities, immigrants, people with disabilities, they all need to be actively involved and represented, both socially and economically, in order to realize their talent and potential, improve their quality of life and prosper.
By promoting participation and representation, individuals and different social groups are able to challenge social norms and stereotypes that create imbalances, develop mutual understanding for one another and interact more closely. In effect, empowering people signifies social change, an attempt to pave the way for a more democratic, cohesive and culturally enriched society, characterized by equality and respect for diversity.
Here we have collected for you the most inspirational and thought provoking quotes about empowering people and social groups. Share them with your loved ones and friends to motivate them! Use them as captions to add confidence to your Instagram and social media posts! Reflect upon them to broaden your perspective and enjoy a meaningful and blissful life!
Table of Contents
- Top 20 Empowering Quotes For Everyone
- Top 10 Quotes To Help You Empower Others
- Short Empowering Quotes for Instagram
- Best Empowering Quotes for Women
- Great Empowering Quotes for Men
- Empower Yourself With These Inspirational Quotes
Top 20 Empowering Quotes For Everyone
- You can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you will. Stephen King
- Stop giving your life away to other people. Steve Maraboli
- The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any. Alice Walker
- Don’t be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others. Unfold your own myth. Rumi
- If there’s one thing I’ve learned in life, it’s the power of using your voice. Michelle Obama
- Definitions belong to the definers, not the defined. Toni Morrison
- Accept what is, let go of what was and have faith in what will be. Unknown
- Don’t look at your feet to see if you are doing it right. Just dance. Anne Lamott
- My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style. Maya Angelou
- The surest way to lose your self-worth is by trying to find it through the eyes of others. Becca Lee
- People grow through experience if they meet life honestly and courageously. Eleanor Roosevelt
- You renew yourself every day. Sometimes you’re successful, sometimes you’re not, but it’s the average that counts. Satya Nadella
- Despair is the price one pays for self-awareness. Look deeply into life, and you’ll always find despair. Irvin D. Yalom
- We just need to be kinder to ourselves. If we treated ourselves the way we treated our best friend, can you imagine how much better off we would be? Meghan Markle
- Learning from each mistake requires self-awareness and humility, but it can be one of the biggest keys to reaching your full potential. Amy Morin
- Never be ashamed of what you feel. You have the right to feel any emotion that you want and to do what makes you happy. That’s my life motto. Demi Lovato
- Do not let another day go by where your dedication to other people’s opinions is greater than your dedication to your own emotions! Steve Maraboli
- Find something you’re passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it. Julia Child
- The universe is not outside of you. Look inside yourself; everything that you want, you already are. Rumi
- The most effective way to do it, is to do it. Amelia Earhart
Top 10 Quotes To Help You Empower Others
- As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others. Bill Gates
- Nothing liberates our greatness like the desire to help, the desire to serve. Marianne Williamson
- Know what sparks the light in you so that you, in your own way, can illuminate the world. Oprah Winfrey
- The function of freedom is to free someone else. Toni Morrison
- It is a beautiful thing to be on fire for justice… there is no greater joy than inspiring and empowering others––especially the least of these, the precious and priceless wretched of the earth! Cornel West
- Keep your language. Love its sounds, its modulation, its rhythm. But try to march together with men of different languages, remote from your own, who wish like you for a more just and human world. Helder Camara
- Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great. Mark Twain
- Whatever the problem, be part of the solution. Don’t just sit around raising questions and pointing out obstacles. Tina Fey
- Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing. Abraham Lincoln
- You were put on this earth to achieve your greatest self, to live out your purpose, and to do it courageously. Steve Maraboli
- The most impactful thing you can do with power is almost always to give it away. Hank Green
- Feeling confident—or pretending that you feel confident—is necessary to reach for opportunities. It’s a cliché, but opportunities are rarely offered; they’re seized. Sheryl Sandberg
- Nothing is impossible, the word itself says ‘I’m possible’! Audrey Hepburn
Short Empowering Quotes for Instagram
- Risk-taking is the cornerstone of empires. Estée Lauder
- Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t—you’re right. Henry Ford
- Your fear is 100% dependent on you for its survival. Steve Maraboli
- The most difficult thing is the decision to act; the rest is merely tenacity. Amelia Earhart
- Your willingness to look at your darkness is what empowers you to change. Iyanla Vanzant
- Wisdom is always an overmatch for strength. Phil Jackson
- This is your moment. Own it. Oprah Winfrey
- You are your best thing. Toni Morrison
- Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence. Helen Keller
- The only way to break free of a controlling force is to first recognize exactly what that force is. George R.R. Martin
- First, think. Second, believe. Third, dream. And finally, dare. Walt Disney
- Courage is like a muscle. We strengthen it by use. Ruth Gordon
- The challenge is not to be perfect… it’s to be whole. Jane Fonda
- In life, there is no real safety except for self-belief. Madonna
- If your heart is broken, make art with the pieces. Shane Koyczan
- Many receive advice, only the wise profit from it. Harper Lee
- My recipe for life is not being afraid of myself, afraid of what I think or of my opinions. Eartha Kitt
- The question isn’t who’s going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me. Ayn Rand
- It is incredibly empowering to know that your future is in your hands. Keanu Reeves
Best Empowering Quotes for Women
- A woman with a voice is, by definition, a strong woman. Melinda Gates
- Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it. Maya Angelou
- I have chosen to no longer be apologetic for my femaleness and my femininity. And I want to be respected in all of my femaleness because I deserve to be. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another stepping stone to greatness. Oprah Winfrey
- I have learned that as long as I hold fast to my beliefs and values – and follow my own moral compass – then the only expectations I need to live up to are my own. Michelle Obama
- If you start thinking that only your biggest and shiniest moments count, you’re setting yourself up to feel like a failure most of the time. Chris Hadfield
- When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid. Audre Lorde
- Be brutally honest about the short term, and optimistic and confident about the long term. Reed Hastings
- Girls should never be afraid to be smart. Emma Watson
- A girl should be two things: who and what she wants. Coco Chanel
- … sooner or later she had to give up the hope for a better past. Irvin D. Yalom
- I think the best role models for women are people who are fruitfully and confidently themselves, who bring light into the world. Meryl Streep
- Above all, be the heroine of your life, not the victim. Nora Ephron
Great Empowering Quotes for Men
- No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. Eleanor Roosevelt
- Trust the timing of your life. Unknown
- Do what you think is right. Don’t let people make the decision of right or wrong for you. Steve Maraboli
- You have to decide who you are and force the world to deal with you, not with its idea of you. James Baldwin
- Challenges are gifts that force us to search for a new center of gravity. Don’t fight them. Just find a new way to stand. Oprah Winfrey
- If one advances confidently in the direction of one’s dreams, and endeavors to live the life which one has imagined, one will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. Henry David Thoreau
- Whenever a negative thought concerning your personal power comes to mind, deliberately voice a positive thought to cancel it out. Norman Vincent Peale
- Forget safety. Live where you fear to live. Destroy your reputation. Be notorious. Rumi
- The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud. Coco Chanel
- If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears however measured or far away. Henry David Thoreau
- A man may conquer a million men in battle but one who conquers himself is, indeed, the greatest of conquerors. Buddha
- Don’t be afraid. Be focused. Be determined. Be hopeful. Be empowered. Michelle Obama
Empower Yourself With These Inspirational Quotes
- Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding. Kahlil Gibran
- We do not need magic to transform our world. We carry all of the power we need inside ourselves already. J.K. Rowling
- Dance, when you’re broken open. Dance, if you’ve torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance when you’re perfectly free. Rumi
- And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. Anaïs Nin
- If we did all the things we are capable of, we would literally astound ourselves. Thomas Edison
- Power can be taken, but not given. The process of the taking is empowerment in itself. Gloria Steinem
- Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputations can never effect a reform. Susan B. Anthony
- Stop in somebody’s shadow to rest and cool down, and you are lost. No one can make anyone else happy. Peter Deunov
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