March 8th marks the 107th anniversary of International Women’s Day, a day that honors the fight for our rights as women– to end hunger, end poverty, end domestic violence, fight for gender equality and rally around each other as women.

You all know how much I love a great quote, but I have never put together a compilation of all of my favorites in one post. In honor of this special day over the years, I have honored different women for #IWD. I have spotlighted trailblazing women (both known and unknown), but today I will keep it simple. I would love to share a page full of my favorite inspirational quotes for women.

This upcoming Wednesday on Global TV at 8:20am, I will also be sharing 5 Ways To Celebrate International Women’s Day with your Kids.

Here are my top 20 favorites to inspire women to take action in their own lives first, and then to help their mothers, sisters, daughters and friends advance in this world. Women matter. Women count. Women can make a difference.

Happy International Women’s Day week! This upcoming week and on March 8 we celebrate ALL women, ALL around the globe. Here’s to you, ladies!

1. “What makes you different makes you beautiful.” Author Unknown 

2. “Life is a dance between making it happen, and letting it happen.” – Arianna Huffington

3. “My heart is at ease knowing that what was meant for me will never miss me, and that what misses me was never meant for me.” – Imam ash-Shafi

4. “The ship that you’re waiting for to come in may very well be the ship that you need to build.” – Eddie Harris Jr.

5. “Never give up on what you really want to do. The person with big dreams is more powerful than one with all the facts.” – Albert Einstein

6. “Don’t judge those who try and fail. Judge those who fail to try.” – Author Unknown

7. “To achieve greatness, start where you are, use what you have, do what you can.” – Arthur Ashe

8. “If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.” – Maya Angelou

9. “Sometimes your only available transportation is a leap of faith.” – Margaret Shepard

10. “You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing that we call ‘failure’ is not the falling down, but the staying down.” – Mary Pickford

11. “Sometimes you win. Sometimes you learn.” – Author Unknown

12. “Let loose of what you can’t control. Serenity will be yours.” – Unknown

13. “Be brave enough to live creatively. The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. You cannot get there by bus, only by hard work, risking and by not quite knowing what you are doing. What you will discover will be wonderful: Yourself.” – Alan Alda

14. “And the time came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” – Anais Nin

15. “It’s very simple: When you’re working your hardest, the world opens up to you.” – Russell Simmons

16. “She stood in the storm, and when the wind did not blow her way, she adjusted her sails.” – Elizabeth Edwards

17. “They tried to bury us. They didn’t know we were seeds.” – Mexican Proverb

18. “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.” – Theodore Roosevelt

19. “Just because you used to be, doesn’t mean you have to be.” – Dallas Clayton

20. “Self care isn’t vanity, it’s sanity.” – Erica Diamond

I would like to take this moment to pay tribute to all the women who have inspired me along the way in my journey–  there are too many to name. And thank YOU, readers. I dedicate this to you, my readers of 12 years, who have taught me the value of a sisterhood of warrior women who live far and wide around this globe, but who are united by the desire to be a better woman than they were yesterday. I salute you.

Happy International Women’s Day 2021

Peace and love,

Erica3