Quotes for the Journey: Self-Love Love yourself first and everything falls into line. Lucille Ball

You must love yourself before you love another.  By accepting yourself and fully being what you are, your simple presence can make others happy.         -unattributed     You will always have to live with yourself, and it is to your best interest to see that you have good company -- a clean, pure, straight, honest, upright, generous, magnanimous companion.       -Orison Swett Marden     It is of practical value to learn to like yourself.  Since you must spend so much time with yourself you might as well get some satisfaction out of the relationship.        -Norman Vincent Peale     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     I am a feminist, and what that means to me is much the same as the meaning of the fact that I am Black:  it means that I must undertake to love myself and to respect myself as though my very life depends upon self-love and self-respect.         -June Jordan      Self-love is the foundation of our loving practice.  Without it our other efforts to love fail.  Giving ourselves love we provide our inner being with the opportunity to have the unconditional love we may have always longed to receive from someone else.        -Bell Hooks     Love your neighbor as you love your self.      -Jesus of Nazareth

Most of the time you are growing up, people tell you what's wrong with you.  Your coach tells you, your parents tell you, the teachers tell you when they grade you. I think that's very good in the early stages, because it helps you then develop skills.  But at some point in your career, generally I think when you are in your teens, you look in a mirror and you have to say, despite all the bumps and warts, "I like that person I'm looking at, and let's just do our best."        - Robert D. Ballard

You can explore the universe looking for somebody who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and you will not find that person anywhere.  You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.       -the Buddha

The question "Is this an act of self-love or is it an act of self-sabotage?" is one you must consistently ask yourself if you are committed to having all that you want and all that you deserve.  When you love yourself you feel worthy and deserving of claiming the gifts of this world.  Self-love gives you peace of mind and balance.  Self-love gives you self-respect and the ability to respect others.  It gives you the confidence to stand up and ask for what you want.  Self-love is the main ingredient in a successful, fulfilled life.        - Debbie Ford

If you aren't good at loving yourself, you will have a difficult time loving anyone, since you'll resent the time and energy you give another person that you aren't even giving to yourself.        -Barbara De Angelis

When we don't love ourselves unconditionally, the limited, judgmental, conditional love we give ourselves is all we have to give anyone.  When we see ourselves as flawed, we also see others as flawed.       -unattributed

My primary relationship is with myself--all others are mirrors of it.  As I learn to love myself, I automatically receive the love and appreciation that I desire from others.  If I am committed to myself and to living my truth, I will attract others with equal commitment.  My willingness to be intimate with my own deep feelings creates the space for intimacy with another.  As I learn to love myself, I receive the love I desire from others.       -Shakti Gawain

Self-love is not opposed to the love of other people.  You cannot really love yourself and do yourself a favor without doing people a favor, and vise versa.        -Karl Menninger

I believe that probably the most important thing is that a loving person is a person who loves him or herself.  Now people are going to sit up and say, "Oh, oh, what does he mean by that?"  I'm not talking about the ego trip.  I'm not talking about standing before a mirror and saying, "Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who's the fairest one of all?  You're so right, mirror."  You know that isn't what I'm talking about when I say a person who loves him or herself.  I'm talking about a person who loves oneself as being someone who realizes that you can only give away what you have, so you damned well better work at getting something.  You want to be the most educated, the most brilliant, the most exciting, the most versatile, the most creative individual in the world, because then you can give it away; and the only reason you have anything is to give it away.        -Leo Buscaglia

If you have trouble loving yourself, imagine that everyone in the world is a hungry soul whose life has been imperfect.  Like you, they had imperfect parents.  Like you, tragedies and difficulties befell them.  If you could hear each person's story, you would probably be moved to tears and want to reach out and embrace that person.  You would want to tell them that in spite of everything they've gone through, they have great value.        -Daphne Rose Kingma

My imperfections and failures are as much a blessing from God as my successes and my talents and I lay them both at his feet.         - Mohandas Gandhi

There comes a time when you have to stand up and shout:  This is me damn it!  I look the way I look, think the way I think, feel the way I feel, love the way I love!  I am a whole complex package.  Take me. . . or leave me.  Accept me--or walk away!  Do not try to make me feel like less of a person, just because I don't fit your idea of who I should be and don't try to change me to fit your mold.  If I need to change, I alone will make that decision.  When you are strong enough to love yourself 100%, good and bad-- you will be amazed at the opportunities that life presents you.       -Stacey Charter

And most of all, I will love myself.  For when I do, will zealously inspect all things which enter my body, mind and soul.  Never will I overindulge the requests of my flesh, rather I will cherish my body with cleanliness and moderation.  Never will I allow my mind to be attracted to evil and despair, rather I will uplift it with the wisdom and knowledge of the ages.  Never will I allow my soul to become complacent and satisfied, rather I will feed it with meditation and prayer.  Never will I allow my heart to become small and bitter, rather I will share it and it will grow and warm the earth.       -Og Mandino

Don't forget to love yourself.        -Søren Kierkegaard

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