100+ Awesome & Inspiring Self-Confidence Quotes for Men

We independently evaluate the products and brands we recommend, and may receive compensation if you click on links within this post. Click here to learn more.

This is a bit embarrassing, but – how should I put this? – inspiring quotes about self confidence are kind of my jam.

self-confidence-quotes-for-men
– Joan Baez

(In fact, sometimes I write entire blog posts about them.)

There’s just something about reading insightful, inspiring and empowering words of wisdom from those who have come before us that motivates me to get up off my duff and work hard to achieve my goals.

So in the interest of spreading the wealth (or the wisdom, as it were), I’ve collected 99 of my favorite self-confidence quotes for men.

After scanning through these creeds, here’s hoping you’ll be as motivated as I was to get up off your duff and take positive action.


Self-Esteem Quotes for Men ↓

A Collection of Killer Confidence Quotes for Guys Who Want to Think, Feel & Act More Self-Assured


“Every action that is easy to do is also easy not to do.” – Jeff Olson

“It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up.” – Babe Ruth

“A mind once stretched by a new idea can never return to its original dimensions.” – Oliver Wendall Holmes

“Successful people have fear, successful people have doubts, and successful people have worries. They just don’t let these feelings stop them.” ― T. Harv Eker

“A successful person is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks that others throw at him.” – David Brinkley

Illustration of a man building a foundation of bricks
“A successful person is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks that others throw at him.” – David Brinkley

“To have become a deeper man is the privilege of those who have suffered.” – Oscar Wilde

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did.” – Mark Twain

“There’s no point in being successful but sad. Makes no sense. Yes, reach for the mountaintop. But enjoy the climb as well.” – Robin Sharma

“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago; the second-best time is today.” – Chinese proverb

“Sooner or later, those who win are those who think they can.” ― Paul Tournier

“The way to develop self-confidence is to do the thing you fear and get a record of successful experiences behind you.” – William Jennings Bryan

“Losers make excuses; winners make progress.” – Brian Tracy

“Do what you can, with what you have, right where you are.” – Theodore Roosevelt

“Character, in the long run, is the decisive factor in the life of an individual and of nations alike.” – Theodore Roosevelt

“Knowledge will give you power, but character respect.” – Bruce Lee

“Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries.” – James A. Michener

“Character — the willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own life — is the source from which self-respect springs.” – Joan Didion

“What we think, we become.” – Buddha

“Happiness is not something you postpone for the future; it is something you design for the present.” – Jim Rohn


“Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you.”

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.” – Dale Carnegie

“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.” – Helen Keller

“I want to put a dent in the universe.” – Steve Jobs

“Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.” – Thomas Jefferson

“Confidence is a habit that can be developed by acting as if you already had the confidence you desire to have.” – Brian Tracy

“Change your thoughts and you change your world.” ― Norman Vincent Peale

“If you are insecure, guess what? The rest of the world is, too. Do not overestimate the competition and underestimate yourself. You are better than you think.” – T. Harv Eker

“As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.” – Maya Angelou

Man doing a pushup looking into camera
“It’s hard to beat a man who never gives up.” – Babe Ruth
[image: Jasminko Ibrakovic / Shutterstock]

“The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.” – Bruce Lee

“Two roads diverged in a wood and I took the one less traveled by, and that made all the difference.” – Robert Frost

“If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.” – Vincent Van Gogh

“In my experience, there is only one motivation, and that is desire. No reasons or principle contain it or stand against it.” – Jane Smiley

“People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.” – Dale Carnegie

“Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no help at all.” – Dale Carnegie

“It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.” – Herman Melville


“A man can stand a lot if he can stand himself.”

– Axel Munthe

“Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune; but great minds rise above it.” – Washington Irving

“Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.” – Truman Capote

“Accept who you are; and revel in it.” – Mitch Albom

“Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” – John R. Wooden

“The best things and best people rise out of their separateness; I’m against a homogenized society because I want the cream to rise.” – Robert Frost

“Whether you come from a council estate or a country estate, your success will be determined by your own confidence and fortitude.” – Michelle Obama

“To overcome fear is the quickest way to gain your self-confidence.”– Roy T. Bennett

“You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.” – Joe Sabah

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.” – Aristotle

“The superior man is modest in his speech but exceeds in his actions.” – Confucius

“You cannot score a goal when you are sitting on the bench. To do so, you have to dress up and enter the game.” – Israelmore Ayivor

“We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly.” – Aristotle

Illustration of confident man in suit staring into camera
“Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.” – Thomas Jefferson
[image: ESB Professional / Shutterstock]

“The successful person makes a habit of doing what the failing person doesn’t like to do.” – Thomas Edison

“That which we persist in doing becomes easier – not that the nature of the task has changed, but our ability to do has increased.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.” – William Faulkner

“People may doubt what you say, but they will believe what you do.” – Lewis Cass

“Action may not always bring happiness … but there is no happiness without action.” – Benjamin Disraeli

“Confidence comes not from always being right but from not fearing to be wrong.” – Peter T. McIntyre

“Preach! Write! Act! Do any thing, save to lie down and die!” – Nathaniel Hawthorne

“All problems become smaller if you don’t dodge them but confront them.” – William F. Halsey

“Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting in a particular way. We become just by performing just action, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave action.” – Aristotle

“It is easy to sit up and take notice, What is difficult is getting up and taking action.” – Al Batt

“We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost, that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them.” – Henry David Thoreau

“Self-confidence is contagious.” – Stephen Richards

“Nothing happens until something moves.” – Albert Einstein

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” – Sally Berger

“Think like a man of action, and act like a man of thought.” – Henri L. Bergson

“Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.” – Thomas Jefferson

“As I grow older, I pay less attention to what people say. I just watch what they do.” – Andrew Carnegie

“Life leaps like a geyser for those who drill through the rock of inertia.” – Alexis Carrel

“Trust only movement. Life happens at the level of events, not of words. Trust movement.” – Alfred Adler

“The world cares very little about what a man or woman knows; it is what a man or woman is able to do that counts.” – Booker T. Washington

“Small deeds done are better than great deeds planned.” – Peter Marshall

“Whatever you do may seem insignificant to you, but it is most important that you do it.” – Mahatma Gandhi

“Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need.” ― Kahlil Gibran

“Action is the antidote to despair.” – Joan Baez

“We are all inclined to judge ourselves by our ideals; others, by their acts.” – Harold Nicolson

“Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.” – Warren Buffett

“The vision must be followed by the venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps – we must step up the stairs.” – Vance Havner

“There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up.” ― John Holmes

“You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.” ― Kahlil Gibran

“You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.” ― John Bunyan


“Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent.”

– Eleanor Roosevelt

“A kind gesture can reach a wound that only compassion can heal.” ― Steve Maraboli

“When will our consciences grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it?” ― Eleanor Roosevelt

“That’s what I consider true generosity: You give your all, and yet you always feel as if it costs you nothing.” ― Simone de Beauvoir

“Conquer the angry one by not getting angry; conquer the wicked by goodness; conquer the stingy by generosity, and the liar by speaking the truth.” – Buddha

“Give what you have. To someone, it may be better than you dare to think.” ― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“The wise man does not lay up his own treasures. The more he gives to others, the more he has for his own.” ― Lao Tzu

“In the course of my life, I have often had to eat my words, and I must confess that I have always found it a wholesome diet.” ― Winston Churchill

“There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.” – Paulo Coelho

“Every person that you meet knows something you don’t; learn from them.” ― H. Jackson Brown Jr.

“A man should never be ashamed to own that he has been in the wrong, which is but saying in other words that he is wiser today than he was yesterday.” ― Alexander Pope

“Don’t accept your dog’s admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonderful.” ― Ann Landers

“You yourself, as much as anyone in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.” – Buddha

“There is a universal respect and even admiration for those who are humble and simple by nature, and who have absolute confidence in all human beings irrespective of their social status.” ― Nelson Mandela

“Who knows himself a braggart, let him fear this, for it will come to pass that every braggart shall be found an ass.” ― William Shakespeare


“There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up.”

– John Holmes

“While differing widely in the various little bits we know, in our infinite ignorance we are all equal.” ― Karl Popper

“Have more humility. Remember you don’t know the limits of your own abilities. Successful or not, if you keep pushing beyond yourself, you will enrich your own life – and maybe even please a few strangers.” ― A.L. Kennedy

“He that can have patience can have what he will.” ― Benjamin Franklin

“Positive words, whether used verbally or in writing, are the glue that holds relationships together.” ― Tom Rath

“Generosity is the most natural outward expression of an inner attitude of compassion and loving-kindness.” ― Dalai Lama XIV

Confident man at desk staring into camera
“Sooner or later, those who win are those who think they can.” ― Paul Tournier
[image: G-Stock Studio / Shutterstock]

“Kindness that turns to bitterness when it is not appreciated was never kindness at all.” ― Vironika Tugaleva

“Your personal brand is never more about you than it is when it’s about other people. You gain more for yourself when you’re selfless, rather than selfish.” ― Jarod Kintz

“True kindness is not necessarily giving something to someone who is down, but showing them that they still have something to give to get back up.” ― Charles F. Glassman

“The best things to do with the best things in life is to give them away.” ― Dorothy Day

“There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.” ― Ernest Hemingway

“It is unwise to be too sure of one’s own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.” ― Mahatma Gandhi

“True humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less.” ― C.S. Lewis

“A great man is always willing to be little.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson

“That kind of life is most happy which affords us most opportunities of gaining our own esteem.” – Samuel Johnson

“A person’s worth in this world is estimated according to the value they put on themselves.” – Jean De La Bruvere

“The confidence which we have in ourselves gives birth to much of that which we have in others.” – Francois De La Rochefoucauld

“A man can stand a lot if he can stand himself.” – Axel Munthe

“The key to unlock the door of success is hidden deep in your thoughts. Accept each failure as a stepping stone, because it paves the way towards improvement.” – Srinivas Mishra

“Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

“It’s not who you are that holds you back, it’s who you think you’re not.” – Author Unknown

“Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“If you put a small value upon yourself, rest assured that the world will not raise your price.” – Author Unknown

“Argue for your limitations and, sure enough, they’re yours.” – Richard Bach


Stop Doubting. Start Dominating.

Take Command of Your Life with a Step-by-Step Guide to Building Confidence for Men

Are you sick of feeling like you’re not living up to your full potential?

Do you find yourself wondering how to be more confident with girls, or searching for ways to build confidence at work?

Have you ever seen a confident man who was fit, well-dressed, charismatic and self-assured, and wondered how you can compete?

The Amazon #1 bestselling book Man in Command is your roadmap for overcoming your introversion, subjugating your shyness and developing deep, authentic confidence in yourself.

Learn More


More Resources ↓
More Confidence & Self-Esteem Resources From Irreverent Gent:

About Dave Bowden

Dave Bowden

Founder, Irreverent Gent
Author, Man in Command and Stop Doubting, Start Dating
Writer, Really Wordy Author Bios

Dave Bowden is a style blogger, menswear expert and best-selling author (in Canada—but still!) whose advice on how to look good and live well has been featured in New York Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Men's Health and more.

When not obsessing over style and self-improvement, he can usually be found spending time with his wonderful wife and two amazing sons, indulging in a hoppy craft beer, or sobbing over the woeful state of Toronto's sports teams.

Check out Dave's Style Story to find out how a chance encounter with his friend's step-dad taught him the value of looking good and living well (don't worry—it's less creepy than it sounds!), or email him at [email protected] if you want to get in touch.

8 thoughts on “100+ Awesome & Inspiring Self-Confidence Quotes for Men”

Leave a Reply to Dave Bowden Cancel reply