Motivational quotes for women: 100 real quotes, each one checked
Quotes by women from science, sports, business and the arts, each with a copy button. Every one checked against its source.
KraftyLab TeamUpdated 14 min read
Motivational quotes for women are some of the most misattributed lines on the internet. Eleanor Roosevelt, Maya Angelou and Marilyn Monroe get credit for dozens of things they never said. These 100 quotes by women were checked one by one against the speaker's own book, speech, letter or interview, or the sourced section of her Wikiquote page, and where the popular wording differs, we used her words. They come from scientists, athletes, founders, writers and astronauts, from the 1790s to today, sorted by the moment you need one for. You'll also find ways to use them at work, six openers for an ERG meeting, 20 encouraging sayings we wrote ourselves and the famous lines we left out.
Short positive quotes for women, for a card or a slide
Ten words or fewer, so they fit a card, a slide title or a channel topic.
1
Failure is impossible.
Susan B. Anthony, suffragist
2
Pressure is a privilege.
Billie Jean King, tennis champion
3
You must do the thing you think you cannot do.
Eleanor Roosevelt, diplomat and activist
4
Never be limited by other people's limited imaginations.
Mae Jemison, astronaut and physician
5
Growth and comfort do not coexist.
Ginni Rometty, former IBM CEO
6
Your silence will not protect you.
Audre Lorde, poet and essayist
7
My work is loving the world.
Mary Oliver, poet
8
Vulnerability is not weakness; it's our greatest measure of courage.
Brené Brown, researcher and author
9
My theory is, strong people don't need strong leaders.
Ella Baker, civil rights organizer
10
Knowledge is the superpower of the 21st century.
Sylvia Earle, oceanographer
11
My first slogan is: if you're going to lead, lead.
Linda Cliatt-Wayman, school principal
12
Power, intelligently directed, can lead to more freedom.
Mary McLeod Bethune, educator
Strong women quotes on courage and confidence
For the day before the big presentation, the first week in a new role, or the moment someone has to speak up.
13
You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.
Eleanor Roosevelt, diplomat and activist
14
Without courage we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.
Maya Angelou, poet and memoirist
15
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, poet and essayist
16
Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be a challenge to others.
Amelia Earhart, aviator
17
Above all, be the heroine of your life, not the victim.
Nora Ephron, writer and filmmaker
18
We realise the importance of our voice when we are silenced.
Malala Yousafzai, education activist
19
Sometimes, I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company?
Zora Neale Hurston, novelist and folklorist
20
Fear is inevitable, I have to accept that, but I cannot allow it to paralyze me.
Isabel Allende, novelist
21
I do not wish them to have power over men; but over themselves.
Mary Wollstonecraft, writer and philosopher
22
And a crazy thing happened: the very act of doing the thing that scared me undid the fear, made it not scary.
Shonda Rhimes, TV producer and writer
23
No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.
Rosa Parks, civil rights activist
24
Wish me courage and strength and a sense of humor.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh, aviator and author
25
We must know what we think and speak out, even at the risk of unpopularity.
Eleanor Roosevelt, diplomat and activist
26
I want to do it because I want to do it.
Amelia Earhart, aviator
Motivational quotes for women at work: leadership and ambition
Inspirational women quotes for the job itself: running a team, building a career, doing the work well.
On leading
From women who ran schools, hospitals, companies and movements, and from the researchers who study leaders.
27
Leadership is a matter of how to be, not how to do.
Frances Hesselbein, Girl Scouts CEO
28
Let whoever is in charge keep this simple question in her head (not, how can I always do this right thing myself, but) how can I provide for this right thing to be always done?
Florence Nightingale, nursing pioneer
29
What is the greatest sign of success for a teacher thus transformed? It is to be able to say, "The children are now working as if I did not exist."
Maria Montessori, educator
30
Now, we need to redefine leadership as an activity in which conditions are created in which everyone can do their most courageous thinking together.
Margaret Heffernan, entrepreneur and author
31
When teaming works, you can be sure that some leaders, leaders at all levels, have been crystal clear that they don't have the answers.
Amy Edmondson, business professor
32
Our task is to create the space where everybody's slices of genius can be unleashed and harnessed, and turned into works of collective genius.
Linda Hill, business professor
33
I think you have to have a certain sense of your own value, and a sense of security on your part, to be able to forgo the glamor of what the leadership role offers.
Ella Baker, civil rights organizer
34
Great leaders dare to be different. They don't just talk about risk-taking, they actually do it.
Roselinde Torres, leadership consultant
35
I am a leader, so I know I cannot do anything alone.
Linda Cliatt-Wayman, school principal
36
I speak not for myself, but so those without a voice can be heard.
Malala Yousafzai, education activist
37
The good we secure for ourselves is precarious and uncertain, is floating in mid-air, until it is secured for all of us and incorporated into our common life.
Jane Addams, Hull House cofounder
38
Every child deserves a champion, an adult who will never give up on them, who understands the power of connection, and insists that they become the best that they can possibly be.
Rita Pierson, educator
On work and ambition
For anyone building a career, a craft or a company.
39
If you find a book you really want to read but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.
Toni Morrison, novelist
40
A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.
Virginia Woolf, novelist and essayist
41
Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts, as much as their brothers do.
Charlotte Brontë, novelist
42
I was promoted from there to the washtub. Then I was promoted to the cook kitchen, and from there I promoted myself into the business of manufacturing hair goods and preparations.
Madam C. J. Walker, entrepreneur
43
When I'm hard at work, when I'm deep in it, there is no other feeling.
Shonda Rhimes, TV producer and writer
44
Work is not just something I do when I'd rather be doing something else.
Stephanie Shirley, software entrepreneur
45
First forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you're inspired or not.
Octavia E. Butler, science fiction author
46
The only trick is that you've got to identify the best, worthiest thing that you love most, and then build your house right on top of it and don't budge from it.
Elizabeth Gilbert, author
47
Knowing what you can not do is more important than knowing what you can do.
Lucille Ball, comedian and studio head
48
Desire is creation, is the magical element in that process. If there were an instrument by which to measure desire, one could foretell achievement.
Willa Cather, novelist
49
I've started and run businesses because invention is a joy, and because working alongside brilliant, creative people is its own reward.
Margaret Heffernan, entrepreneur and author
50
I like to work problems. If you do your best, nobody can ask you to do it over again.
Katherine Johnson, NASA mathematician
Women empowerment quotes: resilience, science and sports
Female empowerment quotes from women who changed their fields, many of them after being told no.
On resilience
Uplifting quotes for women for the week a project fails, a promotion goes to someone else, or the plan has to start over.
51
Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.
Helen Keller, author and activist
52
You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.
Maya Angelou, poet and memoirist
53
There is no such thing as failure. Failure is just life trying to move us in another direction.
Oprah Winfrey, media executive
54
You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing that we call "failure" is not the falling down, but the staying down.
Mary Pickford, film actress
55
You are not born with a fixed amount of resilience. It's a muscle. You can build it up and then draw on it when you need it.
Sheryl Sandberg, tech executive
56
Maybe you have to know darkness before you can appreciate the light.
Madeleine L'Engle, novelist
57
Be strong. Just keep going and try. Sometimes you make mistakes and sometimes you win.
Sophia Loren, film actress
58
Just remember, you can do anything you set your mind to, but it takes action, perseverance, and facing your fears.
Gillian Anderson, actor
59
Mistakes are learning experiences, and I embrace those moments.
Serena Williams, tennis champion
60
If you can transform marginality into something positive, instead of dwelling on it as something negative, it's a wonderful source of strength.
Isabel Allende, novelist
61
Nobody goes undefeated all the time. If you can pick up after a crushing defeat, and go on to win again, you are going to be a champion someday.
Wilma Rudolph, Olympic sprinter
62
I'm proof against that word failure. I've seen behind it. The only failure a man ought to fear is failure of cleaving to the purpose he sees to be best.
George Eliot, novelist
From women in science and discovery
Scientists, engineers, astronauts and explorers, in their own words.
63
All my life through, the new sights of Nature made me rejoice like a child.
Marie Curie, physicist and chemist
64
I was taught that the way of progress is neither swift nor easy.
Marie Curie, physicist and chemist
65
We may say most aptly that the Analytical Engine weaves algebraical patterns just as the Jacquard-loom weaves flowers and leaves.
Ada Lovelace, mathematician
66
A preoccupation with the wonder and beauty of the earth has strongly influenced the course of my life.
Rachel Carson, marine biologist
67
The aim of science is to discover and illuminate truth.
Rachel Carson, marine biologist
68
Science and everyday life cannot and should not be separated.
Rosalind Franklin, chemist
69
A human must turn information into intelligence or knowledge. We've tended to forget that no computer will ever ask a new question.
Grace Hopper, computer scientist
70
Science is competitive, aggressive, demanding. It is also imaginative, inspiring, uplifting.
Vera Rubin, astronomer
71
If we assume we've arrived: we stop searching, we stop developing.
Jocelyn Bell Burnell, astrophysicist
72
I've always enjoyed helping people understand what they can find in math. There's no judgment there.
Katherine Johnson, NASA mathematician
73
If an idea, I reasoned, were really a valuable one, there must be some way of realising it.
Elizabeth Blackwell, physician
74
It's the only planet we've got, and you can see the effect of humanity when you look back at Earth from space.
Sally Ride, astronaut and physicist
75
Reach for it, you know. Go push yourself as far as you can.
Christa McAuliffe, teacher and astronaut
From women in sports
Champions and coaches on pressure, practice and getting back up.
76
I don't take things personally, which I think is really important if you're going to make it in life, because it's really about the person speaking.
Billie Jean King, tennis champion
77
If I executed 90% of the race, I felt I would be successful and the times would come. I could only control my mechanics.
Gail Devers, Olympic sprinter
78
I was injured but I never gave up on myself. I believed I could do it.
Jackie Joyner-Kersee, track and field champion
79
I wanted to make an impact beyond running fast and jumping far.
Jackie Joyner-Kersee, track and field champion
80
You can never give up or get down on yourself. A true champion keeps his or her chin up and always takes life one race at a time.
Gail Devers, Olympic sprinter
81
Cry in the beginning to smile at the end.
Marta, soccer champion
82
Whoever said, "It's not whether you win or lose that counts", probably lost.
Martina Navratilova, tennis champion
83
It looks like the most solitary endeavor in the world, and in many ways, of course, it is. And in other ways, and the most important ways, it's a team.
Diana Nyad, marathon swimmer
84
If you are losing faith in human nature, go out and watch a marathon.
Kathrine Switzer, marathon pioneer
85
My sister Venus once said that when someone out there says you can't do something, it is because they can't do it. But I did do it. And so can you.
Serena Williams, tennis champion
86
Soccer didn't make me who I was. I brought who I was to soccer, and I get to bring who I am wherever I go.
Abby Wambach, soccer champion
87
Failure is not something to be ashamed of, it's something to be POWERED by. Failure is the highest octane fuel your life can run on.
Abby Wambach, soccer champion
Woman to woman quotes: women supporting women
On mentors, role models and lifting the next woman up. For a mentoring note, an ERG post or a thank-you to the woman who opened a door for you.
88
I want you to understand that I never could have done the work I have if I had not had this woman at my right hand.
Susan B. Anthony, suffragist
89
I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.
Audre Lorde, poet and essayist
90
Women's rights is not only an abstraction, a cause; it is also a personal affair. It is not only about "us"; it is also about me and you. Just the two of us.
Toni Morrison, novelist
91
For what is done or learned by one class of women becomes, by virtue of their common womanhood, the property of all women.
Elizabeth Blackwell, physician
92
It is well known that I am available twenty-four hours a day to women astronomers.
Vera Rubin, astronomer
93
It's very important for girls in high school to be able to look out in the real world and see women scientists.
Sally Ride, astronaut and physicist
94
Joy. Success. Power. These are not pies where a bigger slice for her means a smaller slice for you. These are infinite.
Abby Wambach, soccer champion
95
I'd like to think that I went through some hard times as a professional tennis player so that the next generation could have it easier.
Serena Williams, tennis champion
96
I hope I can continue to carry the torch for upcoming young girls who have a dream like I did a few years ago. And yes, dreams do come true.
Annika Sörenstam, golf champion
97
When we teach girls to be brave and we have a supportive network cheering them on, they will build incredible things, and I see this every day.
Reshma Saujani, Girls Who Code founder
98
I would rather walk with a friend in the dark than walk alone in the light.
Helen Keller, author and activist
99
How wonderful it is that no one has to wait, but can start right now to gradually change the world!
Anne Frank, diarist
100
After centuries of dormancy, young women … can now look toward a future moulded by their own hands.
Rita Levi-Montalcini, neurobiologist
How to use quotes for women at work
A quote on its own is a poster. A quote with one sentence from you about a real person is a message. Five places it works, with wording you can borrow.
On International Women's Day. International Women's Day is March 8 every year. Skip the generic graphic: pair one quote with the names of real women on your team and one real thing each of them did.“Happy International Women's Day. Sally Ride said girls need to look out in the real world and see women scientists. Here are two of ours: [name], who shipped [project], and [name], who mentored three new hires. Thank you both.”
Through Women's History Month. In the US, March is Women's History Month. Post one quote a day in a team channel with a single line about the woman who said it, and invite people to add a woman from their own field.“Day 12: Grace Hopper wrote one of the first compilers when people said computers could only do arithmetic. Who's a woman in our industry more people should know about?”
In a mentoring note. A quote opens the note; the specific encouragement is what she keeps. Name the skill you've watched her build and the next step you think she's ready for.“Toni Morrison said if the book you want hasn't been written yet, you must write it. That's what you did with the onboarding guide. I think you're ready to lead the next one.”
As an ERG meeting opener. Read one quote, ask one question, and go around the room with one answer each. It gets people talking about their own work in two minutes. Six ready-made openers are below.“Today's quote is from Audre Lorde, about using your strength in the service of your vision. Quick round: what's one thing you want to be braver about this quarter?”
On a card for a promotion or a farewell. Pick a short quote, then write two sentences of your own: what she did, and what it meant to the team.“Congratulations on the new role. ‘Pressure is a privilege,’ as Billie Jean King put it. You made the hardest quarter look calm, and we learned a lot watching you do it.”
Six quote-and-question openers for an ERG or mentoring circle
Each pairs a quote from this page with a question we wrote. Read the quote, ask the question, one answer each. Planning the whole month? Our Women's History Month ideas and Women's History Month trivia fill the rest of the calendar.
Audre Lorde: “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.”
What's one thing you'd try this quarter if you weren't worried about getting it wrong?
Abby Wambach: “Joy. Success. Power. These are not pies where a bigger slice for her means a smaller slice for you.”
Whose win this month should more people hear about?
Susan B. Anthony: “I never could have done the work I have if I had not had this woman at my right hand.”
Who has been at your right hand at work, and have you told them?
Sally Ride: “It's very important for girls in high school to be able to look out in the real world and see women scientists.”
Who was the first woman you saw doing the job you wanted?
Sheryl Sandberg: “You are not born with a fixed amount of resilience. It's a muscle.”
Which setback built your resilience the most, and what did it teach you?
Lucille Ball: “Knowing what you can not do is more important than knowing what you can do.”
What's one thing you'd stop doing so you could do your best work?
20 encouraging sayings for women, written by us
Sometimes you want inspirational sayings for women without a famous name under them. We wrote these, so they carry no attribution: put one on a card, in a direct message or at the end of a mentoring note.
1
You belong in every room you walk into.
2
Your voice moves this team forward. Keep using it.
3
Take the seat at the table. It's yours.
4
You don't have to be perfect to be brilliant.
5
Ask for the stretch project. You're ready for it.
6
Your ideas deserve the floor. Take it.
7
Celebrate your wins out loud. You earned them.
8
You make hard things look possible.
9
Keep going. Someone is learning just by watching you.
10
Confidence is a skill, and you build it every day.
11
Your kindness and your ambition can share the same desk.
12
Say yes to the big project. Figure out the rest later.
13
One brave email can change a career.
14
You've done hard things before. This is one more.
15
Thank you for holding the door open for the next woman.
16
Trust your judgment. It got you here.
17
Don't shrink to fit. Grow to lead.
18
The room is better when you speak up.
19
Your success makes room for more of ours.
20
Rest is part of the plan, not a break from it.
Famous female quotes we left out
These sit near the top of most lists of inspirational female quotes. We left them off because the name under them is wrong or unproven.
“Well-behaved women seldom make history.” (usually credited to Marilyn Monroe or Eleanor Roosevelt)
Neither said it. The historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich wrote it in a 1970s scholarly article about Puritan funeral sermons, where she meant that history books overlook ordinary, dutiful women. It's usually quoted as a call to misbehave, which isn't what she meant.
“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” (usually credited to Eleanor Roosevelt)
Wikiquote lists it as disputed: it's often said to be in her book This Is My Story, but no one has found it there or anywhere else she wrote.
“A woman is like a tea bag: you never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water.” (usually credited to Eleanor Roosevelt)
Also disputed on Wikiquote. Archivists haven't found it in any of her writings.
“A ship in port is safe, but that's not what ships are built for.” (usually credited to Grace Hopper)
Hopper liked to repeat it, but the saying is older: Wikiquote traces it to John Augustus Shedd. We used her own words instead.
A quote in the channel is a good start. For International Women's Day or Women's History Month, a live host can run an hour for the whole team on your video call: Zoom, Teams, Google Meet or whatever platform you use. Women's History Trivia & Games mixes trivia and games about influential women, historic events and equality milestones, and the teams rotate after each round, so people meet new teammates. Teams split across time zones can book two sessions. Book about 2 weeks ahead.
Eleanor Roosevelt's “You must do the thing you think you cannot do” is hard to beat, and it's from her own book, You Learn by Living (1960). For a graduation or a new role, Nora Ephron's “Above all, be the heroine of your life, not the victim” comes from her 1996 Wellesley commencement speech.
What are some short positive quotes for women?
Try “Pressure is a privilege” (Billie Jean King), “Growth and comfort do not coexist” (Ginni Rometty) or “Never be limited by other people's limited imaginations” (Mae Jemison). Every quote in our short list is 10 words or fewer, so it fits a card or a slide.
What are good woman to woman quotes?
Abby Wambach's “Joy. Success. Power. These are not pies where a bigger slice for her means a smaller slice for you” is a favorite for women supporting women. Susan B. Anthony said of Elizabeth Cady Stanton that she never could have done her work without “this woman at my right hand.” Both are in our women supporting women list.
Who said “Well-behaved women seldom make history”?
The historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, in a 1970s scholarly article about Puritan funeral sermons, not Marilyn Monroe or Eleanor Roosevelt. She meant that history overlooks ordinary, dutiful women, and later wrote a book about how the line took on a life of its own.
Did Eleanor Roosevelt say “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent”?
Probably not. Wikiquote lists it as disputed: it's often said to be in her book This Is My Story, but no one has found it there or in anything else she wrote. Her own book You Learn by Living has a line just as strong: “You must do the thing you think you cannot do.”
When is International Women's Day?
International Women's Day is March 8 every year, and in the US the whole of March is Women's History Month. For ideas beyond a quote in the channel, see our guide to International Women's Day at work.
What are some encouraging sayings for women?
Lines like “You belong in every room you walk into” or “Take the seat at the table. It's yours” work on a card or in a message to a colleague. We wrote 20 of them for this page, so you can use them without a name underneath.
Celebrate the women on your team
A live host runs an hour of Women's History trivia and games for your team on your video call. Send your date and headcount for a plan within 24 hours.
