120 Girlboss Quotes to Empower and Inspire You

Being a girlboss is hard. But it’s also amazing. Taking charge of your life and creating something from nothing is an experience like no other, and it’s entirely unique to the girlboss. The best part about being a girlboss is that you get to define success for yourself. You don’t have to follow someone else’s path or accept what society dictates; instead, you can create whatever kind of life you want. You can set your own goals and work hard to achieve them. You don’t have to conform to restrictive gender roles or feel limited by the expectations of others. Instead, you get the freedom and flexibility to do whatever it takes to make your dreams come true.

Being a girlboss also means taking risks and having courage when things don’t go as planned. You don’t have to be perfect or accept failure every time; instead, you can find the courage to try again and learn from your mistakes. By taking risks, making bold decisions, and never giving up, you can create a life that is truly unique to you—one that reflects your passions, dreams, and values.

This is why, we’ve decided to dedicate this article to celebrating the girlboss and sharing some of our favorite tips for success. Here’s a list of 120 quotes from successful women that will inspire and motivate you to take the leap, take risks, and make your dreams come true.

Girlboss Quotes

1. “I’m not bossy, I’m the boss” – Beyonce
2. “Most people just exist.” – Oscar Wilde
3. “Limit your ‘always’ and your ‘nevers.’” – Amy Poehler
4. “‘No’ today doesn’t mean ‘no’ tomorrow.” – Yvonne Orji
5. “Storms make trees take deeper roots.” – Dolly Parton
6. Every great dream begins with a dreamer. – Harriet Tubman
7. Careers are a jungle gym, not a ladder. – Sheryl Sandberg
8. Despite the forecast, live like it’s spring. – Lily Pulitzer
9. “Self- esteem means knowing you are the dream.” – Oprah Winfrey
10. “If you don’t risk anything, you risk even more.” – Erica Jong
11. She never cared for the crown. She preferred a sword. – R.H. Sin
12. And a lot of the time, it’s what makes you great.” – Emma Stone
13. “The warrior knows that her heartbreak is her map.” – Glennon Doyle
14. “A girl should be two things: who and what she wants.”- Coco Chanel
15. “And though she be but little, she is fierce.” – William Shakespeare
16. “There are always flowers for those who want to see them.” Henry Matisse
17. “Above all, be the heroine of your life, not the victim.”- Nora Ephron
18. “Throw me to the wolves and I’ll come back leading the pack.” – Anonymous
19. “Nothing is impossible, the word itself says ‘I’m possible!’” – Audrey Hepburn
20. “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
21. “I’m not afraid of storms, for I’m learning to sail my ship.”- Louisa May Alcott
22. “The truth will set you free. But first, it will piss you off.” – Gloria Steinem
23. “When a woman becomes her own best friend life is easier.”- Diane Von Furstenberg
24. “A wise girl knows her limits, a smart girl knows she has none.” – ​ Marilyn Monroe
25. Women are the largest untapped reservoir of talent in the world. – Hillary Clinton
26. She is water. Soft enough to offer life, tough enough to drown it away. – Rupi Kaur
27. “It’s possible to climb to the top without stomping on other people.” – Taylor Swift
28. “I just give myself permission to suck. I find this hugely liberating.” – John Green
29. “The question isn’t who is going to let me: it’s who is going to stop me.” – Ayn Rand
30. “I’ll never harden my heart, but I’ve toughened the muscles around it.” – Dolly Parton
31. “Here’s to strong women. May we know them. May we be them. May we raise them. – Unknown
32. “Hold onto your old friends. Kiss your mama. Admit what your dreams are.” – Maya Rudolph
33. “If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one.” – Dolly Parton
34. “You’ve got to learn to leave the table when love’s no longer being served.” – Nina Simone
35. “The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain!” – Dolly Parton
36. If broken by inside force, life begins. Great things always begin from inside.” – Anonymous
37. “Don’t let anyone speak for you, and don’t rely on others to fight for you.” – Michelle Obama
38. Freeing yourself was one thing, claiming ownership of that freed self was another. – Toni Morrison
39. “You can waste your lives drawing lines. Or you can live your life crossing them.” – Shonda Rhimes
40. “Passion is energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you.” – Oprah Winfrey
41. True strength is knowing that you don’t have to be strong every single second of the day. – Mandy Hale
42. “Some people are old at 18 and some are young at 90. Time is a concept that humans created.” – Yoko Ono
43. People call me a feminist whenever I express statements that distinguish me from a doormat- Rebecca West
44. “Always be a first- rate version of yourself instead of a second- rate version of somebody else.” – Judy Garland
45. I want to be like a sunflower; so that even on the darkest days I will stand tall and find the sunlight. – M.K.
46. “Create the highest, grandest vision possible for your life, because you become what you believe.” – Oprah Winfrey
47. “I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.” – Audre Lorde
48. “Owning our story can be hard but not nearly as difficult as spending our lives running from it.” – Brene Brown
49. “Be a first-rate version of yourself, not a second rate version of someone else.” – Judy Garland
50. “Women are the real architects of society.” – Harriet Beecher Stowe
51. “One is not born, but rather becomes a woman.” – Simone de Beauvoir
52. “A woman with a voice is by definition a strong woman.” – Melinda Gates
53. “Women are the largest untapped reservoir of talent in the world.” – Hillary Clinton
54. “The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.” – Coco Chanel
55. “You don’t have to be pretty. You don’t owe prettiness to anyone. Not to your boyfriend/spouse/partner, not to your co-workers, especially not to random men on the street. You don’t owe it to your mother, you don’t owe it to your children, you don’t owe it to civilization in general. Prettiness is not a rent you pay for occupying a space marked ‘female.’” – Erlyn Stenberg.​​​​​
56. “The thing women have yet to learn is nobody gives you power. You just take it.” – Roseanne Barr
57. “No citizen has a right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training…what a disgrace it is for a man to grow old without ever seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.” – Socrates
58. “Women are the real architects of society.” – Harriet Beecher Stowe
59. “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
60. “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” – Alice Walker
61. “I totally rebel against that. I refuse to believe that you cannot be both compassionate and strong.” – Jacinda Ardern
62. “It’s cool to be kind. It’s cool to be weird. It’s cool to be honest and to be secure with yourself.” ― Sophia Amoruso
63. “It’s not your job to be likeable. It’s your job to be yourself. Someone will like you anyway.” – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
64. “Caring for myself is not self- indulgence, it is self- preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” – Audre Lorde
65. “Don’t compromise yourself. You are all you’ve got. There is no yesterday, no tomorrow, it’s all the same day.” – Janis Joplin
66. “We need to reshape our own perception of how we view ourselves. We have to step up as women and take the lead.” – Beyonce
67. “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
68. Make it yours. Feed it to yourself even if it feels impossible to swallow. Let it nurture you, because it will.” ―Cheryl Strayed
69. Always be cultivating a support network so that when you stumble – and you will – they’ll be there to catch you.” – Claire Wasserman CEO
70. “I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back.”- Maya Angelou
71. “I’ve been absolutely terrified every moment of my life- and I’ve never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do.” –  Georgia O’Keeffe
72. “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
73. Every time you fail and get back up, you practice perseverance, which is the key to life. Your strength comes in your ability to recover.” – Michelle Obama
74. I am a woman with thoughts and questions and shit to say. I say if I’m beautiful. I say if I’m strong. You will not determine my story- I will. – Amy Schumer
75. “When you take risks you learn that there will be times when you succeed and there will be times when you fail and both are equally important.” – Ellen DeGeneres
76. We need to raise our voices a little more, even as they say to us, ‘This is so uncharacteristic of you.’ Invisibility is not a natural state for anyone. – Mitsuye Yamada
77. “I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.” – Audre Lorde
78. “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
79. “The power of finding beauty in the humblest things makes home happy and life lovely.” – Louisa May Alcott
80. “A woman is the full circle. Within her is the power to create, nurture and transform.” – Diane Mariechild
81. “We cannot all succeed when half of us are held back.” – Malala Yousafzai
82. “The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.” – Coco Chanel
83. “It’s not about perfect. It’s about effort, and when you implement that effort into your life…every single day, that’s where transformation happens. That’s how change occurs.” – Jillian Michaels
84. “Be somebody who makes everybody feel like a somebody.” – Brad Montague
85. “When you’re different, sometimes you don’t see the millions of people who accept you for what you are. All you notice is the person who doesn’t.” – Jodi Picoult
86. “We can do no great things—only small things with great love.” –Mother Teresa
87. “Courage, sacrifice, determination, commitment, toughness, heart, talent, guts. That’s what little girls are made of; the heck with sugar and spice.” – Bethany Hamilton
88. “Don’t ever make decisions based on fear. Make decisions based on hope and possibility. Make decisions based on what should happen, not what shouldn’t.” – Michelle Obama
89. Of course, I am not worried about intimidating men. The type of man who will be intimidated by me is exactly the type of man I have no interest in. – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
90. We’ll only know that whatever that sister life was, it was important and beautiful and not ours. It was the ghost ship that didn’t carry us. There’s nothing to do but salute it from the shore.” ― Cheryl Strayed
91. “We need women who are so strong they can be gentle, so educated they can be humble, so fierce they can be compassionate, so passionate they can be rational, and so disciplined they can be free.” – Kavita Ramdas
92. “If you’re one of those people who has that little voice in the back of her mind saying, ‘Maybe I could do [fill in the blank],’ don’t tell it to be quiet. Give it a little room to grow, and try to find an environment it can grow in.” – Reese Witherspoon
93. Do not bring people in your life who weigh you down and trust your instincts. Good relationships feel good. They feel right. They don’t hurt. They’re not painful. That’s not just with somebody you want to marry, but it’s with the friends you choose. It’s with the people you surround yourself with.” – Michelle Obama
94. “Abandon anything about your life and habits that might be holding you back. Learn to create your own opportunities. Know that there is no finish line; fortune favors action. Race balls- out toward the extraordinary life that you’ve always dreamed of, or still haven’t had time to dream up. And prepare to have a hell of a lot of fun along the way.” – Sophia Amoruso
95. Lying to yourself is only going to hurt yourself and other people, and the aftermath could be ugly. In the end, you can’t outrun your own desires. They’re going to pull at you until you respond. So choose to give in now. Choose to make space to figure out who you really are. Choose to ignore what the world tells you will make you happy, fulfilled, and enough. Choose you and start now.” – Katrina Ruth
96. “If you want to run for Prime Minister, you can. If you don’t, that’s wonderful, too. Shave your armpits, don’t shave them, wear flats one day, heels the next. These things are so irrelevant and surface to what it is all really about, and I wish people wouldn’t get caught up in that. We want to empower women to do exactly what they want, to be true to themselves, to have the opportunities to develop. Women should feel free.” – Emma Watson
97. There is nothing stronger than a broken woman who has rebuilt herself.” – Hannah Gadsby
98. “Instead of looking at the past, I put myself ahead twenty years and try to look at what I need to do now in order to get there then.”- Diana Ross
99. “You can be gorgeous at thirty, charming at forty, and irresistible for the rest of your life.” – Coco Chanel
100. “Feminism isn’t about making women stronger. Women are already strong. It’s about changing the way the world perceives that strength.” – G.D Anderson
101. “A woman is like a tea bag – you can’t tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water.” – Eleanor Roosevelt 
102. “A strong woman is a woman determined to do something others are determined not be done.” – Marge Piercy
103. “You can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you will.”- Stephen King
104. “No matter how difficult and painful it may be, nothing sounds as good to the soul as the truth.”- Mary McDonnell
105. “The thing women have yet to learn is nobody gives you power. You just take it.” – Roseanne Barr
106. “You can’t be brave if you’ve only had wonderful things happen to you.” – Mary Tyler Moore
107. “A strong woman understands that the gifts such as logic, decisiveness, and strength are just as feminine as intuition and emotional connection. She values and uses all of her gifts.” – Nancy Rathburn
108. “If you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman.” – Margaret Thatcher
109. “A strong woman is both soft and powerful, she is both practical and spiritual. A strong woman in her essence is a gift to the world.” – Unknown
110. “We need women who are so strong they can be gentle, so educated they can be humble, so fierce they can be compassionate, so passionate they can be rational, and so disciplined they can be free.” – Kavita Ramdas
111. “A strong woman loves, forgives, walks away, lets go, tries again and stands up for herself. She is unapologetic for living her truth and knows that life is a journey not a destination. She is a fiery soul who will do anything to protect those she loves.” – Unknown
112. “Women are the real architects of society.” – Harriet Beecher Stowe
113. “A strong woman is a woman who feels deeply and loves fiercely. Her tears flow as abundantly as her laughter. A strong woman is both soft and powerful, she is both practical and spiritual.”- Unknown
114. “Never underestimate the power of a strong woman. She will fight for what she believes in and she will do it with grace, strength, and dignity.”- Unknown
115. “A strong woman stands up for herself. She knows that if she doesn’t stand up for herself, no one else will.” – Unknown
116. “The strongest actions for a woman is to love herself, be herself and shine amongst those who never believed she could.” – Unknown
117. “The strongest women are not those who show strength in front of us but those who win battles we know nothing about.” – Unknown
118. “A strong woman appreciates the beauty in both strength and weakness. She is kind and she knows when to be fierce.” – Unknown
119. “A strong woman is one who isn’t afraid to speak up for herself and the ones she loves. She knows her worth, and she won’t let anyone take advantage of it.” – Unknown
120. “Strong women don’t play victim, don’t make themselves look pitiful, and don’t point fingers. They stand and they deal.” – Unknown

Wrapping Up

No matter how you want to define strength, the most important thing is that you recognize your own strength and use it in a way that works best for you. Whether it’s leading yourself or others, standing up for what’s right, or simply being there for those who need help, remember that a strong woman never stops growing and learning. Use the words of these inspiring women as reminders to continue believing in yourself, no matter what life throws at you. By doing so, you will be creating a legacy that can change the lives of many around you and make the world a better place for everyone. Good luck!