50 Body-Positive Quotes to Help You Love the Skin You’re In
Updated: Feb. 28, 2024
Celebrate your beautiful body by reading this roundup of the best body-positivity quotes
We’ve all been there before. We’ve gotten up in the morning, looked in the mirror and immediately started critiquing ourselves. Is that really the way to live life, though? Negative self-talk sets the wrong tone for your day, and prolonged negative self-talk impacts your confidence. Instead of critiquing your body and comparing yourself with others, why not apply some kindness to the situation with body-positivity quotes?
Luckily, there are lots of life-changing quotes about body positivity that inspire us to accept our bodies and acknowledge all they’ve done for us—some we share below. Famous figures like Drew Barrymore, Ashley Graham, Alicia Keys and Gloria Steinem have shared their experiences and inspirational messages that can teach you the importance of long-term body acceptance.
Remember: No one’s perfect (even those people we swear are flawless), and beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Bookmark these body-positive quotes that’ll push you to embrace your beauty, stop criticizing and love yourself wholly and shamelessly.
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Body-positivity quotes about loving yourself
1. “This body had carried me through a hard life. It looked exactly the way it was supposed to.” —Carve the Mark
2. “And I said to my body, softly, ‘I want to be your friend.’ It took a long breath. And replied, ‘I have been waiting my whole life for this.'” —Nayyirah Waheed
3. “I just don’t believe in perfection. But I do believe in saying, ‘This is who I am, and look at me not being perfect!’ I’m proud of that.” —Kate Winslet
4. “I definitely have body issues, but everybody does. When you come to the realization that everybody does that—even the people that I consider flawless—then you can start to live with the way you are.” —Taylor Swift
5. “Each individual woman’s body demands to be accepted on its own terms.” —Gloria Steinem
6. “Your words have so much power. Every day, if you tell yourself ‘I love you,’ if you give yourself one word of validation, it will change your mind.” —Ashley Graham
7. “I think your whole life shows in your face, and you should be proud of that.” —Lauren Bacall
8. “I’m not ashamed of what I am and that I have curves and that I’m thick. I like my body.” —Alicia Keys
9. “All bodies are different, all bodies have their own individual way of reacting to the work we make them do.” —Anna Kessel, Eat Sweat Play: How Sport Can Change Our Lives
10. “Eyes closed, feet dancing their way toward the pond, she was her own music, her body her favorite thing she’d ever owned.” —Furthermore
11. “The body is meant to be seen, not all covered up.” —Marilyn Monroe
12. “The human body is the best picture of the human soul.” —Ludwig Wittgenstein
13. “My weight? It is what it is. You could get hit by a bus tomorrow. It’s about being content. And sometimes other priorities win.” —Melissa McCarthy
14. “Most important, in order to find real happiness, you must learn to love yourself for the totality of who you are and not just what you look like.” —Portia de Rossi
15. “Even I don’t wake up looking like Cindy Crawford.” —Cindy Crawford
16. “To love yourself right now, just as you are, is to give yourself heaven. Don’t wait until you die. If you wait, you die now. If you love, you live now.” —Alan Cohen
17. “You can’t hate yourself happy. You can’t criticize yourself thin. You can’t shame yourself worthy. Real change begins with self-love and self-care.” —Jessica Ortner
18. “I have a belly. And I have cellulite. And I still deserve love.” —Amy Schumer
19. “There is more wisdom in your body than in your deepest philosophy.” —Friedrich Nietzsche
20. “I love every cell of my body.” —Louise L. Hay
Keep the motivation going with these confidence quotes.
Body-positivity quotes about beauty
21. “One day I decided that I was beautiful, and so I carried out my life as if I was a beautiful girl. I wear colors that I really like, I wear makeup that makes me feel pretty, and it really helps. It doesn’t have anything to do with how the world perceives you. What matters is what you see.” —Gabourey Sidibe
22. “You define beauty for yourself, society doesn’t define your beauty. Your spirit and your faith defines your beauty.” —Lady Gaga
23. “People often say that ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder,’ and I say that the most liberating thing about beauty is realizing that you are the beholder. This empowers us to find beauty in places where others have not dared to look, including inside ourselves.” —Salma Hayek
24. “Beauty is the enemy. We try to conquer not feeling beautiful all our lives. It’s a battle that can’t be won. There’s no definition of beauty. The only way to achieve beauty is to feel it from inside without breaking down into individual physical attributes.” —Miley Cyrus
25. “Life is so much more beautiful and complex than a number on a scale.” —Tess Holliday
26. “I can’t think of any better representation of beauty than someone who is unafraid to be herself.” —Emma Stone
27. “Any body type is beautiful. It’s all about loving what you got and rocking it.” —Meghan Trainor
28. “Back when I was modeling, the first time I went to Italy I was having cappuccinos every day, and I gained 15 pounds. And I felt gorgeous! I would take my clothes off in front of the mirror and be like, Oh, I look like a woman. And I felt beautiful, and I never tried to lose it, ’cause I loved it.” —Christina Hendricks
29. “I realize everybody wants what they don’t have. But at the end of the day, what you have inside is much more beautiful than what’s on the outside.” —Selena Gomez
30. “It’s beautiful to feel positive about your body, but it’s also fine that you don’t look like everybody else … or you have a different shape of this, or your legs are thicker, or your breasts are larger, or your breasts are smaller, or whatever the thing might be.” —Alicia Keys
31. “You just have to accept your body. You may not love it all the way, but you just have to be comfortable with it. You just want something else that someone else has, but that doesn’t mean what you have isn’t beautiful.” —Rihanna
32. “Be happy in your own skin. If you are unhealthy, start by making small changes to become healthier. You are unique, beautiful and worthy.” —Octavia Spencer
33. “Feeling beautiful has nothing to do with what you look like.” —Emma Watson
34. “There is nothing rarer, nor more beautiful, than a woman being unapologetically herself; comfortable in her perfect imperfection. To me, that is the true essence of beauty.” —Steve Maraboli
Body-positivity quotes to stop self-criticism
35. “My limbs work, so I’m not going to complain about how my body is shaped.” —Drew Barrymore
36. “Remember, you have been criticizing yourself for years, and it hasn’t worked. Try approving of yourself and see what happens.” —Louise L. Hay
37. “Your body hears everything your mind says.” —Naomi Judd
38. “Just focus on being the best possible version of yourself and quit worrying about your thighs—there’s nothing wrong with them.” —Jennie Runk
39. “Being a healthy woman isn’t about getting on a scale or measuring your waistline. We need to start focusing on what matters—on how we feel, and how we feel about ourselves.” —Michelle Obama
40. “I see my body as an instrument, rather than an ornament.” —Alanis Morissette
41. “Stop trying to fix your body. It was never broken.” —Eve Ensler
42. “As for the rest of you, remember this: YOU ARE WANTED. Big, small, tall, short, pretty, plain, friendly, shy. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise, not even yourself. Especially yourself.” —Holding Up the Universe
43. “I don’t have perfect teeth, I’m not stick thin. I want to be the person who feels great in her body and can say that she loves it and doesn’t want to change anything.” —Emma Watson
44. “Hating our bodies is something that we learn, and it sure as hell is something that we can unlearn.” —Megan Jayne Crabbe
45. “I’m not going to sacrifice my mental health to have the perfect body.” —Demi Lovato
46. “Focus on the parts of yourself that will not diminish with time—humor and wisdom are not like collagen. You will make more of them as you age.” —Eleanor Gordon-Smith
47. “I am getting used to my voice not sounding like an apology, my hair looking like a thunderstorm, my face resembling a calamity, my smile looking like jagged tombstones, my soul feeling like an abstract art.” —4 AM Conversations
48. “Speak to your body in a loving way. It’s the only one you’ve got, it’s your home, and it deserves your respect.” —Iskra Lawrence
49. “Someone’s always going to have a critique. … All that matters is what I think of it. And I had to go so deep inside myself and look in the mirror. Looking in the mirror and accepting what’s in the mirror is very, very difficult. And right now, I love it every time I look in the mirror.” —Lizzo
50. “Say goodbye to your inner critic, and take this pledge to be kinder to yourself and others.” —Oprah Winfrey
If you love these body-positive quotes, then let these morning inspirational quotes start your day.
