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
- “I’m not bossy, I’m the boss” – Beyonce
- “Most people just exist.” – Oscar Wilde
- “Limit your ‘always’ and your ‘nevers.’” – Amy Poehler
- “‘No’ today doesn’t mean ‘no’ tomorrow.” – Yvonne Orji
- “Storms make trees take deeper roots.” – Dolly Parton
- Every great dream begins with a dreamer. – Harriet Tubman
- Careers are a jungle gym, not a ladder. – Sheryl Sandberg
- Despite the forecast, live like it’s spring. – Lily Pulitzer
- “Self- esteem means knowing you are the dream.” – Oprah Winfrey
- “If you don’t risk anything, you risk even more.” – Erica Jong
- She never cared for the crown. She preferred a sword. – R.H. Sin
- And a lot of the time, it’s what makes you great.” – Emma Stone
- “The warrior knows that her heartbreak is her map.” – Glennon Doyle
- “A girl should be two things: who and what she wants.”- Coco Chanel
- “And though she be but little, she is fierce.” – William Shakespeare
- “There are always flowers for those who want to see them.” Henry Matisse
- “Above all, be the heroine of your life, not the victim.”- Nora Ephron
- “Throw me to the wolves and I’ll come back leading the pack.” – Anonymous
- “Nothing is impossible, the word itself says ‘I’m possible!’” – Audrey Hepburn
- “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
- “I’m not afraid of storms, for I’m learning to sail my ship.”- Louisa May Alcott
- “The truth will set you free. But first, it will piss you off.” – Gloria Steinem
- “When a woman becomes her own best friend life is easier.”- Diane Von Furstenberg
- “A wise girl knows her limits, a smart girl knows she has none.” – Marilyn Monroe
- Women are the largest untapped reservoir of talent in the world. – Hillary Clinton
- She is water. Soft enough to offer life, tough enough to drown it away. – Rupi Kaur
- “It’s possible to climb to the top without stomping on other people.” – Taylor Swift
- “I just give myself permission to suck. I find this hugely liberating.” – John Green
- “The question isn’t who is going to let me: it’s who is going to stop me.” – Ayn Rand
- “I’ll never harden my heart, but I’ve toughened the muscles around it.” – Dolly Parton
- “Here’s to strong women. May we know them. May we be them. May we raise them. – Unknown
- “Hold onto your old friends. Kiss your mama. Admit what your dreams are.” – Maya Rudolph
- “If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one.” – Dolly Parton
- “You’ve got to learn to leave the table when love’s no longer being served.” – Nina Simone
- “The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain!” – Dolly Parton
- If broken by inside force, life begins. Great things always begin from inside.” – Anonymous
- “Don’t let anyone speak for you, and don’t rely on others to fight for you.” – Michelle Obama
- Freeing yourself was one thing, claiming ownership of that freed self was another. – Toni Morrison
- “You can waste your lives drawing lines. Or you can live your life crossing them.” – Shonda Rhimes
- “Passion is energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you.” – Oprah Winfrey
- True strength is knowing that you don’t have to be strong every single second of the day. – Mandy Hale
- “Some people are old at 18 and some are young at 90. Time is a concept that humans created.” – Yoko Ono
- People call me a feminist whenever I express statements that distinguish me from a doormat- Rebecca West
- “Always be a first- rate version of yourself instead of a second- rate version of somebody else.” – Judy Garland
- I want to be like a sunflower; so that even on the darkest days I will stand tall and find the sunlight. – M.K.
- “Create the highest, grandest vision possible for your life, because you become what you believe.” – Oprah Winfrey
- “I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.” – Audre Lorde
- “Owning our story can be hard but not nearly as difficult as spending our lives running from it.” – Brene Brown
- “Be a first-rate version of yourself, not a second rate version of someone else.” – Judy Garland
- “Women are the real architects of society.” – Harriet Beecher Stowe
- “One is not born, but rather becomes a woman.” – Simone de Beauvoir
- “A woman with a voice is by definition a strong woman.” – Melinda Gates
- “Women are the largest untapped reservoir of talent in the world.” – Hillary Clinton
- “The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.” – Coco Chanel
- “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.
- “The thing women have yet to learn is nobody gives you power. You just take it.” – Roseanne Barr
- “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
- “Women are the real architects of society.” – Harriet Beecher Stowe
- “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
- “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” – Alice Walker
- “I totally rebel against that. I refuse to believe that you cannot be both compassionate and strong.” – Jacinda Ardern
- “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
- “It’s not your job to be likeable. It’s your job to be yourself. Someone will like you anyway.” – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- “Caring for myself is not self- indulgence, it is self- preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” – Audre Lorde
- “Don’t compromise yourself. You are all you’ve got. There is no yesterday, no tomorrow, it’s all the same day.” – Janis Joplin
- “We need to reshape our own perception of how we view ourselves. We have to step up as women and take the lead.” – Beyonce
- “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
- Make it yours. Feed it to yourself even if it feels impossible to swallow. Let it nurture you, because it will.” ―Cheryl Strayed
- Always be cultivating a support network so that when you stumble – and you will – they’ll be there to catch you.” – Claire Wasserman CEO
- “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
- “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
- “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
- 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
- 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
- “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
- 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
- “I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.” – Audre Lorde
- “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
- “The power of finding beauty in the humblest things makes home happy and life lovely.” – Louisa May Alcott
- “A woman is the full circle. Within her is the power to create, nurture and transform.” – Diane Mariechild
- “We cannot all succeed when half of us are held back.” – Malala Yousafzai
- “The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.” – Coco Chanel
- “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
- “Be somebody who makes everybody feel like a somebody.” – Brad Montague
- “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
- “We can do no great things—only small things with great love.” –Mother Teresa
- “Courage, sacrifice, determination, commitment, toughness, heart, talent, guts. That’s what little girls are made of; the heck with sugar and spice.” – Bethany Hamilton
- “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
- 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
- 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
- “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
- “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
- 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
- “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
- 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
- “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
- There is nothing stronger than a broken woman who has rebuilt herself.” – Hannah Gadsby
- “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
- “You can be gorgeous at thirty, charming at forty, and irresistible for the rest of your life.” – Coco Chanel
- “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
- “A woman is like a tea bag – you can’t tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
- “A strong woman is a woman determined to do something others are determined not be done.” – Marge Piercy
- “You can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you will.”- Stephen King
- “No matter how difficult and painful it may be, nothing sounds as good to the soul as the truth.”- Mary McDonnell
- “The thing women have yet to learn is nobody gives you power. You just take it.” – Roseanne Barr
- “You can’t be brave if you’ve only had wonderful things happen to you.” – Mary Tyler Moore
- “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
- “If you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman.” – Margaret Thatcher
- “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
- “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
- “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
- “Women are the real architects of society.” – Harriet Beecher Stowe
- “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
- “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
- “A strong woman stands up for herself. She knows that if she doesn’t stand up for herself, no one else will.” – Unknown
- “The strongest actions for a woman is to love herself, be herself and shine amongst those who never believed she could.” – Unknown
- “The strongest women are not those who show strength in front of us but those who win battles we know nothing about.” – Unknown
- “A strong woman appreciates the beauty in both strength and weakness. She is kind and she knows when to be fierce.” – Unknown
- “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
- “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!
