Immerse yourself in an inspiring collection of Brené Brown quotes that are as relatable as they are empowering.

Contents show

Top 10 Brené Brown Quotes

1. “Yes, I am imperfect and vulnerable and sometimes afraid, but that doesn’t change the truth that I am also brave and worthy of love and belonging.” ― Brené Brown

A woman is holding a bouquet of tulips in front of her face representing the top 10 Brene Brown quote

2. “Let go of who you think you’re supposed to be; embrace who you are.” — Brené Brown

3. “I don’t have to chase extraordinary moments to find happiness — it’s right in front of me if I’m paying attention and practicing gratitude.” — Brené Brown

4. “To see and to be seen. That is the truest nature of love.” — Brené Brown

5. “You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.” — Brené Brown

6. “Want to be happy? Stop trying to be perfect.” — Brené Brown

7. “Here’s what is truly at the heart of wholeheartedness: worthy now. Not if. Not when. We’re worthy of love and belonging now. Right this minute. As is.” — Brené Brown

8. “You either walk into your story and own your truth, or you live outside of your story, hustling for your worthiness.” ― Brené Brown

9. “True belonging doesn’t require you to change who you are; it requires you to be who you are.” — Brené Brown

10. “When two people relate to each other authentically and humanly, God is the electricity that surges between them.” ― Brené Brown

Inspiring Quotes By Brené Brown

1. “True belonging never asks us to change who we are. True belonging requires us to be who we are.” — Brené Brown

2. “We are born makers. We move what we’re learning from our heads to our hearts through our hands.” — Brené Brown

3. “But what we know now is that when we deny our emotion, it owns us. When we own our emotion, we can rebuild and find our way through the pain.” — Brené Brown

4. “Just because someone isn’t willing or able to love us, it doesn’t mean that we are unlovable.” — Brené Brown

5. “Talk to yourself like you would to someone you love.” — Brené Brown

6. “What we know matters but who we are matters more.” — Brené Brown

7. “I define connection as the energy that exists between people when they feel seen, heard, and valued; when they can give and receive without judgment; and when they derive sustenance and strength from the relationship.” — Brené Brown

8. “Compassion is not a virtue — it is a commitment. It’s not something we have or don’t have — it’s something we choose to practice.” — Brené Brown

9. “Love is not something we give or get; it is something that we nurture and grow, a connection that can only be cultivated between two people when it exists within each one of them — we can only love others as much as we love ourselves.” — Brené Brown

10. “You are imperfect, you are wired for struggle, but you are worthy of love and belonging.” — Brené Brown

11. “At the end of the day, at the end of the week, at the end of my life, I want to say I contributed more than I criticized.” — Brené Brown

12. “Connecting the dots of our lives, especially the ones we would rather erase or skip over, requires equal parts self-love and curiosity.” — Brené Brown

13. “The willingness to show up changes us. It makes us a little braver each time.” — Brené Brown

14. “If you want to make a difference, the next time you see someone being cruel to another human being, take it personally. Take it personally because it is personal!” — Brené Brown

15. “Authenticity is the daily practice of letting go of who we think we’re supposed to be and embracing who we are.” — Brené Brown

16. “When I see people stand fully in their truth, or when I see someone fall down, get back up, and say, “Damn. That really hurt, but this is important to me and I’m going in again”—my gut reaction is, “What a badass.” ― Brené Brown

17. “Nothing has transformed my life more than realizing that it’s a waste of time to evaluate my worthiness by weighing the reaction of the people in the stands.” ― Brené Brown

18. “Our job is not to deny the story, but to defy the ending—to rise strong, recognize our story, and rumble with the truth until we get to a place where we think, Yes. This is what happened. This is my truth. And I will choose how this story ends.” ― Brené Brown

19. “Dig deep — get deliberate, inspired, and going.” — Brené Brown

20. “…Sometimes when we are beating ourselves up, we need to stop and say to that harassing voice inside, “Man, I’m doing the very best I can right now”.” ― Brené Brown

Brené Brown Vulnerability Quotes

1. “Vulnerability is not weakness. And that myth is profoundly dangerous.” — Brené Brown

A woman obscured by white blossoms held in front of her face representing a quote about vulnerability

2. “Vulnerability sounds like truth and feels like courage. Truth and courage aren’t always comfortable, but they’re never weakness.” — Brené Brown

3. “Vulnerability is not winning or losing; it’s having the courage to show up and be seen when we have no control over the outcome. Vulnerability is not weakness; it’s our greatest measure of courage.” — Brené Brown

4. “Vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity and change.” — Brené Brown

5. “Avoidance will make you feel less vulnerable in the short run, but it will never make you less afraid.” — Brené Brown

6. “When I look at narcissism through the vulnerability lens, I see the shame-based fear of being ordinary. I see the fear of never feeling extraordinary enough to be noticed, to be lovable, to belong, or to cultivate a sense of purpose.” — Brené Brown

7. “If we are brave enough often enough, we will fall. These are the physics of vulnerability.” — Brené Brown

8. “Vulnerability is the birthplace of love, belonging, joy, courage, empathy, and creativity. It is the source of hope, empathy, accountability, and authenticity. If we want greater clarity in our purpose or deeper and more meaningful spiritual lives, vulnerability is the path.” — Brené Brown

9. “Embracing our vulnerabilities is risky but not nearly as dangerous as giving up on love and belonging and joy — the experiences that make us the most vulnerable.” — Brené Brown

10. “Everyone has a story or a struggle that will break your heart. And if we’re really paying attention, most people have a story that will bring us to our knees.” — Brené Brown

11. “I’m learning that recognizing and leaning into the discomfort of vulnerability teaches us how to live with joy, gratitude, and grace.” ― Brené Brown

12. “We cultivate love when we allow our most vulnerable and powerful selves to be deeply seen and known, and when we honor the spiritual connection that grows from that offering with trust, respect, kindness, and affection.” — Brené Brown

13. “If you trade your authenticity for safety, you may experience the following: anxiety, depression, eating disorders, addiction, rage, blame, resentment, and inexplicable grief.” ― Brené Brown

14. “There is no intimacy without vulnerability. Yet another powerful example of vulnerability as courage.” ― Brené Brown

15. “Staying vulnerable is a risk we have to take if we want to experience connection.” ― Brené Brown

16. “Waking up every day and loving someone who may or may not love us back, whose safety we can’t ensure, who may stay in our lives or may leave without a moment’s notice, who may be loyal to the day they die or betray us tomorrow—that’s vulnerability.” ― Brené Brown

17. “Vulnerability is our most accurate measurement of courage.” ― Brené Brown

18. There are many tenets of Wholeheartedness, but at its very core is vulnerability and worthiness; facing uncertainty, exposure, and emotional risks, and knowing that I am enough.” ― Brené Brown

19. “When we stop caring about what people think, we lose our capacity for connection. When we become defined by what people think, we lose our willingness to be vulnerable.” ― Brené Brown

20. “Vulnerability is not knowing victory or defeat, it’s understanding the necessity of both; it’s engaging. It’s being all in.” ― Brené Brown

Brené Brown Courage Quotes

1. “Courage starts with showing up and letting ourselves be seen.” — Brené Brown

2. “Courage is like—it’s a habitus, a habit, a virtue: You get it by courageous acts. It’s like you learn to swim by swimming. You learn courage by couraging.” ― Brené Brown

3. “Faith is a place of mystery, where we find the courage to believe in what we cannot see and the strength to let go of our fear of uncertainty.” — Brené Brown

4. !The only decision we get to make is what role we’ll play in our own lives: Do we want to write the story, or do we want to hand that power over to someone else? Choosing to write our own story means getting uncomfortable; it’s choosing courage over comfort.” — Brené Brown

5. “Courage originally meant “To speak one’s mind by telling all one’s heart.” ― Brené Brown

6. “Our call to courage is to protect our wild heart against constant evaluation, especially our own. No one belongs here more than you.” — Brené Brown

7. “We can choose courage, or we can choose comfort, but we can’t have both. Not at the same time.” — Brené Brown

8. “Integrity is choosing courage over comfort; choosing what is right over what is fun, fast, or easy; and choosing to practice our values rather than simply professing them.” — Brené Brown

9. “Speaking from our hearts is what I think of as ‘ordinary courage’.” — Brené Brown

10. “Those who have a strong sense of love and belonging have the courage to be imperfect.” ― Brené Brown

11. “Courage is telling our story, not being immune to criticism.” ― Brené Brown

12. “Courage is forged in pain, but not in all pain. Pain that is denied or ignored becomes fear or hate.” ― Brené Brown

13. “The courage to be vulnerable is not about winning or losing, it’s about the courage to show up when you can’t predict or control the outcome.” ― Brené Brown

14. “I’ve learned that power is not bad, but the abuse of power or using power over others is the opposite of courage; it’s a desperate attempt to maintain a very fragile ego.” ― Brené Brown

15. “When we combine the courage to make clear what works for us and what doesn’t with the compassion to assume people are doing their best, our lives change.” — Brené Brown

16. “We can talk about courage and love and compassion until we sound like a greeting card store, but unless we’re willing to have an honest conversation about what gets in the way of putting these into practice in our daily lives, we will never change. Never, ever.” ― Brené Brown

17. “If you choose courage, you will absolutely know failure, disappointment, setback, even heartbreak. That’s why we call it courage. That’s why it’s so rare.” — Brené Brown

18. “Being ourselves means sometimes having to find the courage to stand alone, totally alone.” ― Brené Brown

19. “We need to cultivate the courage to be uncomfortable and to teach the people around us how to accept discomfort as a part of growth.” ― Brené Brown

20. “To practice courage, compassion, and connection is to look at life and the people around us, and say, “I’m all in”.” ― Brené Brown

A bouquet of white roses on a woman's face representing Brene Brown quote on courage

Shame Quotes By Brené Brown

1. “If we can share our story with someone who responds with empathy and understanding, shame can’t survive.” — Brené Brown

2. “If we have one or two people in our lives who can sit with us and hold space for our shame stories, and love us for our strengths and struggles, we are incredibly lucky.” — Brené Brown

3. “You cannot shame or belittle people into changing their behaviors.” ― Brené Brown

4. “Most people still subscribe to the belief that shame is a good tool for keeping people in line. Not only is this wrong, but it’s dangerous. Shame is highly correlated with addiction, violence, aggression, depression, eating disorders, and bullying.” ― Brené Brown

5. “Grace means that all of your mistakes now serve a purpose instead of serving shame.” — Brené Brown

6. “The way to fight shame and to honor who we are is by sharing our experience with someone who has earned the right to hear it.” ― Brené Brown

7. “If we share our shame story with the wrong person, they can easily become one more piece of flying debris in an already dangerous storm.” ― Brené Brown

8. “Shame derives its power from being unspeakable.” ― Brené Brown

9. “Shame works like the zoom lens on a camera. When we are feeling shame, the camera is zoomed in tight and all we see is our flawed selves, alone and struggling.” ― Brené Brown

10. “Shame corrodes the very part of us that believes we are capable of change.” — Brené Brown

11. “We cannot grow when we are in shame, and we can’t use shame to change ourselves or others.” ― Brené Brown

12. “Shame hates it when we reach out and tell our story. It hates having words wrapped around it — it can’t survive being shared. Shame loves secrecy. When we bury our story, the shame metastasizes.” ― Brené Brown

13. “Nothing silences us more effectively than shame.” ― Brené Brown

14. “Shame resilience is the ability to say, “This hurts. This is disappointing, maybe even devastating. But success and recognition and approval are not the values that drive me. My value is courage and I was just courageous. You can move on, shame.” ― Brené Brown

15. “The secret killer of innovation is shame… Shame becomes fear. Fear leads to risk aversion. Risk aversion kills innovation.” ― Brené Brown

Brené Brown Daring Greatly Quotes

1. “The truth is that falling hurts. The dare is to keep being brave and feel your way back up.” — Brené Brown

2. “Authenticity is a collection of choices that we have to make every day. It’s about the choice to show up and be real. The choice to be honest. The choice to let our true selves be seen.” — Brené Brown

3. “When we are willing to risk venturing into the wilderness, and even becoming our own wilderness, we feel the deepest connection to our true self and to what matters the most.” — Brené Brown

4. “A crisis highlights all of our fault lines. We can pretend that we have nothing to learn, or we can take this opportunity to own the truth and make a better future for ourselves and others.” — Brené Brown

5. “To love ourselves and support each other in the process of becoming real is perhaps the greatest single act of daring greatly.” ― Brené Brown

6. “There will be times when standing alone feels too hard, too scary, and we’ll doubt our ability to make our way through the uncertainty. Someone, somewhere, will say, ‘Don’t do it. You don’t have what it takes to survive the wilderness.’ This is when you reach deep into your wild heart and remind yourself, ‘I am the wilderness.’” — Brené Brown

7. “You either walk inside your story and own it or you stand outside your story and hustle for your worthiness.” — Brené Brown

8. “Because true belonging only happens when we present our authentic, imperfect selves to the world, our sense of belonging can never be greater than our level of self-acceptance.” — Brené Brown

9. “There are a million cheap seats in the world today filled with people who will never be brave with their lives but who will spend every ounce of energy they have hurling advice and judgment at those who dare greatly… If you’re criticizing from a place where you’re not also putting yourself on the line, I’m not interested in what you have to say.” — Brené Brown

10. “I now see that owning our story and loving ourselves through that process is the bravest thing that we will ever do.” — Brené Brown

11. “There’s nothing more daring than showing up, putting ourselves out there and letting ourselves be seen.” ― Brené Brown

12. “To love ourselves and support each other in the process of becoming real is perhaps the greatest single act of daring greatly.” ― Brené Brown

13. “… The one thing we have in common is that we’re sick of feeling afraid. we want to dare greatly. We’re tired of the national conversation centering on “What should we fear” and “Who should we blame?” We all want to be brave.” ― Brené Brown

14. “Daring is not saying, “I’m willing to risk failure.” Daring is saying, “I know I will eventually fail and I’m still all in.” ― Brené Brown

15. “And often the result of daring greatly isn’t a victory march as much as it is a quiet sense of freedom mixed with a little battle fatigue.” ― Brené Brown

Brené Brown Quotes About Darkness And Light

1. “The dark does not destroy the light; it defines it. It’s our fear of the dark that casts our joy into the shadows.” — Brené Brown

A woman with curly hair holding a yellow flower in front of her face, which is mostly hidden

2. “There’s a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.” ― Brené Brown

3. “Good friends aren’t afraid of your light. They never blow out your flame and you don’t blow out theirs — even when it’s really bright and it makes you worry about your own flame.” — Brené Brown

4. “Numb the dark and you numb the light.” — Brené Brown

5. “It is our Light, not our Darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you NOT to be?” — Brené Brown

6. “Joy is a light that fills you with hope and faith and love.” — Brené Brown

7. “No one reaches out to you for compassion or empathy so you can teach them how to behave better. They reach out to us because they believe in our capacity to know our darkness well enough to sit in the dark with them.” ― Brené Brown

8. “As we let our own Light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” ― Brené Brown

9. “The most powerful moments of our lives happen when we string together the small flickers of light created by courage, compassion, and connection and see them shine in the darkness of our struggles.” ― Brené Brown

10. “Only when we are brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light.” — Brené Brown

Brené Brown Leadership Quotes

1. “I define a leader as anyone who takes responsibility for finding the potential in people and processes, and who has the courage to develop that potential.” — Brené Brown

2. “Brave leaders are never silent around hard things.” — Brené Brown

3. “Our ability to be daring leaders will never be greater than our capacity for vulnerability.” — Brené Brown

4. “Show up for people in pain and don’t look away.” — Brené Brown

5. “To me, a leader is someone who holds her- or himself accountable for finding potential in people and processes.” — Brené Brown

6. “Courage is contagious. A critical mass of brave leaders is the foundation of an intentionally courageous culture. Every time we are brave with our lives, we make the people around us a little braver and our organizations bolder and stronger.” — Brené Brown

7. “A brave leader is someone who says I see you. I hear you. I don’t have all the answers, but I’m going to keep listening and asking questions.” — Brené Brown

8. “We desperately need more leaders who are committed to courageous, wholehearted leadership and who are self-aware enough to lead from their hearts, rather than unevolved leaders who lead from hurt and fear.” — Brené Brown

9. “There is an incredibly important, uncomfortable, and brave discussion that every single leader and every organization in the world should be having about privilege.” — Brené Brown

10. “Daring leaders work to make sure people can be themselves and feel a sense of belonging.” ― Brené Brown

Brené Brown Quotes On Perfectionism

1. “Perfectionism hampers success. In fact, it’s often the path to depression, anxiety, addiction, and life paralysis.” — Brené Brown

2. “If we have a friend, or small group of friends, or family who embraces our imperfections, vulnerabilities, and power, and fills us with a sense of belonging, we are incredibly lucky.” ― Brené Brown

3. “Perfectionism is a self-destructive and addictive belief system that fuels this primary thought: If I look perfect, and do everything perfectly, I can avoid or minimize the painful feelings of shame, judgment, and blame.” — Brené Brown

4. “Perfectionism is not a way to avoid shame. Perfectionism is a form of shame.” ― Brené Brown

5. “Healthy striving is self-focused: How can I improve? Perfectionism is other-focused: What will they think? Perfectionism is a hustle.” ― Brené Brown

6. “Perfectionism is a shield that we carry with a thought process that says this, ‘If I look perfect, live perfect, work perfect, and do it all perfectly, I can avoid or minimize feeling shame, blame, and judgment.” ― Brené Brown

7. “It’s always helpful to remember that when perfectionism is driving, shame is riding shotgun.” ― Brené Brown

8. “Perfectionism is not about healthy achievement and growth. Perfectionism is the belief that if we live perfect, look perfect, and act perfect, we can minimize or avoid the pain of blame, judgment, and shame. It’s a shield.” ― Brené Brown

9. “Perfectionism never happens in a vacuum. It touches everyone around us. We pass it down to our children, we infect our workplace with impossible expectations, and it’s suffocating for our friends and families.” ― Brené Brown

10. “Quick and dirty wins the race. Perfection is the enemy of done. Good enough is really effin’ good.” ― Brené Brown

Brené Brown Quotes To Ponder

1. “We cannot selectively numb emotions. When we numb the painful emotions, we also numb the positive emotions.” — Brené Brown

A close-up of a woman's face, one eye visible, with white flowers near her cheek

2. “Stop walking through the world looking for confirmation that you don’t belong. You will always find it because you’ve made that your mission. Stop scouring people’s faces for evidence that you’re not enough. You will always find it because you’ve made that your goal. The truth about who we are lives in our hearts.” — Brené Brown

3. “There are too many people today who instead of feeling hurt are acting out their hurt; instead of acknowledging pain, they’re inflicting pain on others. Rather than risking feeling disappointed, they’re choosing to live disappointed.” — Brené Brown

4. “Science is not the truth. Science is finding the truth. When science changes its opinion, it didn’t lie to you. It learned more.” — Brené Brown

5. “You are only free when you realize you belong no place — you belong every place — no place at all. The price is high. The reward is great.” — Brené Brown

6. “The brokenhearted are the bravest among us. They dared to love.” ― Brené Brown

7. “I am responsible for holding you accountable in a respectful and productive way. I’m not responsible for your emotional reaction to that accountability.” — Brené Brown

8. “Compassionate people ask for what they need. They say no when they need to, and when they say yes, they mean it. They’re compassionate because their boundaries keep them out of resentment.” — Brené Brown

9. “If you have more than three priorities, you have no priorities.” ― Brené Brown

10. “People will do almost anything to not feel pain, including causing pain and abusing power.” — Brené Brown

11. “We’re a nation hungry for more joy: Because we’re starving from a lack of gratitude.” ― Brené Brown

12. “Even to me the issue of “stay small, sweet, quiet, and modest” sounds like an outdated problem, but the truth is that women still run into those demands whenever we find and use our voices.” ― Brené Brown

13. “It’s in our biology to trust what we see with our eyes. This makes living in a carefully edited, overproduced, and photoshopped world very dangerous.” ― Brené Brown

14. “Many of us are willing to extend a helping hand, but we’re very reluctant to reach out for help when we need it ourselves. It’s as if we’ve divided the world into “those who offer help” and “those who need help.” The truth is that we are both.” ― Brené Brown

15. “How can we expect people to put value on our work when we don’t value ourselves enough to set and hold uncomfortable boundaries?” ― Brené Brown

16. “Are you the adult that you want your child to grow up to be?” ― Brené Brown

17. “We are biologically, cognitively, physically, and spiritually wired to love, be loved, and to belong. When those needs are not met, we don’t function as we’re meant to be. We break. We fall apart. We numb. We ache … The absence of love and belonging will always lead to suffering.” ― Brené Brown

18. “When we’re kind to ourselves, we create a reservoir of compassion that we can extend to others. Our children learn how to be self-compassionate by watching us, and the people around us feel free to be authentic and connected.” ― Brené Brown

19. “Shame, blame, disrespect, betrayal, and the withholding of affection damage the roots from which love grows. Love can only survive these injuries if they are acknowledged, healed, and rare.” ― Brené Brown

20. “We are the authors of our lives. We write our own daring endings.” ― Brené Brown

Wrapping It Up

Let this collection of Brené Brown’s quotes be your guide to a more authentic life.

Embrace your vulnerability, nurture your courage, and celebrate your imperfection — for therein lies the true essence of an extraordinary existence!