Looking for your daily does of female-powered inspiration? I was, too, when I realized that all of the quotes on my Instagram and Pinterest were a bit blasé. I wanted boss babe quotes from actual female icons.
Instead of “slay the day,” and “Keep your head up, queen,” today’s boss babe quotes are from some of the most legendary women the world has ever seen. Enjoy!
Boss Babe Quotes
“If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one.” – Dolly Parton
“It’s not failure if you enjoy the process.” – Oprah Winfrey
“We learn the way on the way.” – Shannon Kaiser
“Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will.” – Suzy Kassem
“The key to success is to start before you are ready.” – Marie Forleo
“Great people do things before they’re ready.” – Amy Poehler
“I can’t think of any better representation of beauty than someone who is unafraid to be herself.” – Emma Stone
“She will rise with spine of steel and roar like thunder, she will rise.” – Nicole Lyons
“I love the person I’ve become, because I fought to become her.” – Kaci Diane
“Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it possible, without claiming it, she stands up for all women.” – Maya Angelou
“Keep your heels, head, and standards high.” – Coco Chanel
“Every woman’s success should be an inspiration to another. We’re strongest when we cheer each other on.” – Serena Williams
“Turn your wounds into wisdom.” – Oprah Winfrey
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“I want every little girl who’s told she’s bossy to be told instead she has leadership skills.” – Sheryl Sandberg
“Never again would I use someone’s approval as a thermometer for my self-worth.” – Jacqueline Simon Gunn
“Surround yourself with only people who are going to lift you higher.” – Oprah Winfrey
“There is no limit to what we, as women, can accomplish.” – Michelle Obama
“Don’t play hard to get. Be hard to forget and easy to lose.” – Deanna Cobden
“Beauty begins the moment you decide to be yourself.” – Coco Chanel
“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
“Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another stepping stone for greatness.” – Oprah Winfrey
“I am a survivor – a living example of what people can go through and survive.” – Elizabeth Taylor
“We treat beauty like an accomplishment, and that is insane. Everyone in L.A. says, “Oh you look good,” and you listen for them to say you’ve lost weight. It’s never, “How are you?” Or “You seem happy!” – Carrie Fisher
“Be yourself. The world worships the original.” – Ingrid Bergman
“I’ve earned the right to be me.” – Beyonce
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“You will never be stylish if you don’t take risks.” – Rihanna
“Money can run out, but talent is forever.” – Lady Gaga
“Women are always saying, ‘we can do anything that men can do.’ But men should be saying, ‘We can do anything that women can do.” – Gloria Steinem
“Sometimes you gotta be a beauty and a beast.” – Nicki Minaj
“No matter where you’re from, your dreams are valid.” – Lupita Nyong’o
“It isn’t what I do, but how I do it. It isn’t what I say, but how I say it..and how I look when I do it and say it.” – Mae West
“I feel like young girls are told that they have to be a princess and fragile. It’s bullshit. I identify much more with being a warrior – a fighter. If I was going to be a princess, I’d be a warrior princess.” – Emma Watson
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“Do not bring people into your life who weigh you down. Trust your instincts. Good relationships feel good. They feel right. They don’t hurt.” – Michelle Obama
“It is important in this journey to remember that just because someone inflicted hurt upon us, it does not give us the right to do the same.” – Zendaya
“It’s better to be hated for who you are, than to be loved for someone you’re not. It’s a sign of your worth sometimes, if you’re hated by the right people.” – Bette Davis
“But hey, bitches get stuff done.” – Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
“I don’t have any time to stay up all night worrying about what someone who doesn’t love me has to say about me.” – Viola Davis
“Waste no time on anger, regret, or resentment. Just get the job done.” – Ruth Bader Ginsburg
“Don’t expect me to cook. I’m tired. I’m as tired as you.” – Cardi B
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“Every woman knows how mood can affect the way she thinks she looks.” – Elizabeth Taylor
“Empathy is the most radical of human emotions.” – Gloria Steinem
“It never occurs to me that there are things that I cannot do.” – Whoopi Goldberg
“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
“Women feel like we need permission…we need to lead and change that.” – Emma Watson
“We call upon our sisters around the world to be brave – to embrace the strength within and realize their full potential.” – Malala Yousafzai
“Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.” – Harriet Tubman
“We’ve chosen the path to equality. Don’t let them turn us around.” Geraldine Ferraro
“You have to love what you do to want to do it every day.” – Aaliyah
“Only if we understand can we care. If we care, we will help. Only if we help, we shall be saved.” Jane Goodall
“When you grow up as a girl, the world tells you the things that you are supposed to be: emotional, loving, beautiful, wanted. And then when you are those things, the world tells you they are inferior – illogical, weak, vain, empty.” – Stevie Nicks
“Ask yourself: have you been kind today? Make kindness your daily modus operandi and change your world.” – Annie Lennox
“The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you’re still a rat.” – Lily Tomlin
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“You don’t learn from successes, you don’t learn from awards, you don’t learn from celebrity – you only learn from wounds and scars and mistakes and failures. And that’s the truth.” – Jane Fonda
“It’s about empowerment. It’s not about being more powerful than men – it’s about having equal rights with protection, support, and justice.” Annie Lennox
“I do things differently, I don’t go by a rule book, I lead from the heart.” – Princess Diana
“The problem with most men is they’re assholes. The problem with most women is they put up with those assholes.” – Cher
“I live in a world where I don’t give a shit if you have a problem with who I am.” Jane Lynch
“You just have to walk into the room and be fearless. Never let people think for a minute that you couldn’t totally take them down.” – Stevie Nicks
“You wanna fly – you got to give up the shit that weighs you down.” – Toni Morrison
“I’m fearless. I don’t complain. Even when horrible things happen to me – I go on.” – Sofia Vergara
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“For fast-acting relief, try slowing down.” – Lily Tomlin
“My brain, I believe, is the most beautiful part of my body.” – Shakira
“They’ll tell you you’re too loud, that you need to wait your turn and ask the right people for permission. Do it anyways.” – Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
“When you start to develop your powers of empathy and imagination, the whole world opens up to you.” – Susan Sarandon
“Imperfection equals beauty. We are all imperfect.” – Miley Cyrus
“Put blinders on those things that conspire to hold you back, especially the ones in your own head.” – Meryl Streep
“Be patient and peristent. Life is not so much what you accomplish as what you overcome.” – Robin Roberts
“It took me a long time to realize we are not meant to be perfect; we’re meant to be whole.” – Jane Fonda
“The difficult I’ll do right now. The impossible will take a little while.” – Billie Holiday
“Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get.” – Ingrid Bergman
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“Girls have got balls. They’re just a little higher up, that’s all.” – Joan Jett
“If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun.” Katharine Hepburn
“You have to learn to get up from the table when love is no longer being served.” Nina Simone
“Be your own artist, and always be confident in what you’re doing. If you’re not going to be confident, you might as well not be doing it.” – Aretha Franklin
“Women are the real architects of society.” – Cher
“I am not a victim. No matter what I have been through, I’m still here. I have a history of victory.” – Robin Roberts
“Be yourself and you’ll be more than you ever thought of being.” – Janis Joplin
“To be brave is to love someone unconditionally, without expecting anything in return.” – Madonna
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“I think every woman should have a blow torch.” – Julia Child
“Smile to the future and it will smile back to you.” – Yoko Ono
“I think women have the right to do whatever they want to their bodies that make them feel good about themselves.” – Susan Sarandon
“If there is a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, you must be the one to write it.” – Toni Morrison
“As one goes through life, one learns that if you don’t padde your own canoe, you don’t move.” – Katharine Hepburn
“I’m not going to limit myself just because people won’t accept the fact that I can do something else.” – Dolly Parton
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“I am where I am because I believe in all possibilities.” – Whoopi Goldberg
“Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement.” – Golda Meir
“Why not just live in the moment, especially if it has a good beat?” – Goldie Hawn
“To be liberated, woman must feel free to be herself, not in rivalry to man but in the context of her own capacity and her personality.” – Indira Gandhi
“Don’t let anyone tell you you can’t do something. Make your own victories. Make your own mistakes.” – Joan Jett
“If you are waiting for someone to believe in you, you’ll be waiting forever. You must believe in yourself.” – Cher
“When you find the right shade of lipstick, you feel more confident.” Sofia Vergara
“I just don’t feel like I have to explain myself.” – Dolly Parton
“From now on, I’m going to own myself and be true to myself. I no longer want to live someone else’s idea of what and who I should be…I’m going to be me.” – Princess Diana
“I don’t follow the rules. I never did, and I’m not going to start now.” – Madonna
“Happiness is the greatest beauty secret.” – Tina Turner
“I’d rather regret the risks that didn’t work out than the changes I didn’t take at all.” – Simone Biles
“In dark times, if you have something to hold on to, which is yourself, you’ll survive.” – Whoopi Goldberg
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“You can never be happy until you understand why you’re doing what you’re doing.” – Janet Jackson
“It took me quite a long time to develop a voice, and now that I have it, I’m not going to be silent.” – Madeleine Albright
“People say that you’re going the wrong way when it’s simply a way of your own.” – Angelina Jolie
“AT 70 years old, if I could give my younger self one piece of advice, it would be to use the words ‘fuck off’ much more frequently.” – Helen Mirren
“Live your life. If you’re not happy with yourself, change. But if you are happy with yourself, screw ‘em.” – Kelly Clarkson
“Don’t compromise yourself. You are all you’ve got.” – Janis Joplin
“There are lessons in everything – the bad, the good. Our job is to listen, and to continue to learn so that maybe we can get better at this. Maybe we can get better at life.” – Laverne Cox
“Women – if the sould of the nation is to be saved, I believe that you must become its soul.” – Coretta Scott King
Have a suggestion?
Am I missing any boss babe quotes from bad ass women? Leave a comment below or send me an email! I’d love to chat!
