Maya Angelou Quotes

If God put the rainbows right in the clouds themselves, each one of us in the direst and dullest and most dreaded and dreary moments can see a possibility of hope ... Each one of us has the chance to be a rainbow in somebody's cloud.

A certain person wondered why a big strong girl like me wouldn't keep a job which paid a normal salary. I took my time to lead her and to read her every page. Even minimal people can't survive on minimal wage. A certain person wondered why I wait all week for you. I didn't have the words to describe just what you do. I said you had the motion of the ocean in your walk, and when you solve my riddles you don't even have to talk.

I'm very blessed that I have a healthy temper. I can become quite angry and burning in anger, but I have never been bitter. Bitterness is a corrosive, terrible acid. It just eats you and makes you sick.

When I try to describe myself to God I say, 'Lord, remember me? Black? Female? Six-foot tall? The writer?' And I almost always get God's attention.

I speak a number of languages, but none are more beautiful to me than English.

If you are always trying to be normal you will never know how amazing you can be.

If I insist on being pessimistic, there is always tomorrow. Today I am blessed.

My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style

I admire people who dare to take the language, English, and understand it and understand the melody.

You dwell in whitened castles with deep and poisoned moats and cannot hear the curses which fill your children's throats.

You can only become great at something you are willing to sacrifice for

I am overwhelmed by the grace and persistence of my people.

Courage, I don't think anybody is born with courage. I think you may be born with a flair to braggadocio, you know. That's not courage.

A woman who is convinced that she deserves to accept only the best challenges herself to give the best. Then she is living phenomenally.

Some of us are timid. We think we have something to lose so we don't try for that next hill.

When the human race neglects its weaker members, when the family neglects its weakest one - it's the first blow in a suicidal movement.

If we are bold, love strikes away the chains of fear from our souls.

If I'm here, I'll be trying to be a better human being, a better writer, a better friend and a better beloved.

We must create a climate where people agree that human beings are more alike than unalike. The only way to do that is through education.

Continue to be bold, courageous. Try to choose the wisest thing and once you've chosen the wisest thing go out and try to achieve it. Be it.

When we decide to be happy we accept the responsibility to bring happiness to someone else. Some decide that happiness and glee are the same thing, they are not. When we choose happiness we accept the responsibility to lighten the load of someone else and to be a light on the path to another who may be walking in darkness.

I love the song 'I Hope You Dance' by Lee Ann Womack. I was going to write that song, but someone beat me to it.

Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with deeper meaning.

I think music is one of the hero/sheroes of the African-American existence.

Light and shadow are opposite sides of the same coin. We can illuminate our paths or darken our way. It is a matter of choice.

I'm here, and I do my best to be completely centered at the place I'm at, then I go forward to the next place.

The black kids, the poor white kids, Spanish-speaking kids, and Asian kids in the US - in the face of everything to the contrary, they still bop and bump, shout and go to school somehow. Their optimism gives me hope.

I don't think there's such a thing as autobiographical fiction. If I say it happened, it happened, even if only in my mind.

It's a wonderful thing to know that there is something to know there is something greater than I am, and that is God itself.

When we give cheerfully and accept gratefully, everyone is blessed.

I love a statement by the apostle Paul, in the Book of Philippians in the Bible. I think the Corinthians had been writing to Paul, telling him that old men were chasing young women, nobody was tithing - and all that must have run Paul crazy. He wrote back and said, "If there be anything of good report, speak of these things." That's one of my principles.It's another discipline that I encourage myself to employ - to, as much as possible, say the courteous thing, and then be it.

Poetry is music written for the human voice.

I encourage courtesy. To accept nothing less than courtesy, and to give nothing less than courtesy.

We are more alike than unalike.

A societies needs determines their ethics

Without willing it, I had gone from being ignorant of being ignorant to being aware of being aware. And the worst part of my awareness was that I didn't know what I was aware of. I knew I knew very little, but I was certain that the things I had yet to learn wouldn't be taught to me at George Washington High School.

Raising kids is like nailing Jell-O to a tree.

You don't want modesty, you want humility. Humility comes from inside out. It says someone was here before me and I'm here because I've been paid for. I have something to do and I will do that because I'm paying for someone else who has yet to come.

I had to trust life and believe that life loved the person who dared to live it.

Human beings are more alike than unalike. Whether in Paris, Texas, or Paris, France, we all want to have good jobs where we are needed and respected and paid just a little more than we deserve. We want healthy children, safe streets, to be loved and have the unmitigated gall to accept love. If we are religious, we want a place to perpetuate God. If not, we want a good lecture every once in a while. And everyone wants someplace to party on Saturday nights.

Rainbows are people whose lives are bright, shining examples for others.

While the rest of the world has been improving technology, Ghana has been improving the quality of man's humanity to man.

It may in fact be utterly impossible to be successful without helping others to become successful.

No one can take the place of a friend, no one.

I pray for humility because that comes from inside out. And what humility does for one, is it reminds us that there are people before me. I have already been paid for. And what I need to do is prepare myself so that I can pay for someone else who has yet to come, but who may be here and needs me.

Don't let the man bring you down.

Laugh...It's the sweetest thing one can do for oneself and one's fellow human beings.

If you have a napkin, you need another napkin to receive back all the blessings you'll get. And you keep giving. Then you need a towel to receive all the gifts. And you continue giving. Finally, you need a tablecloth. And you continue giving - not stupidly, but you give. And when you give, you finally have to move out and get a second house, and a third house and a fourth.It is a no - fail, incontrovertible reality: If you get, give. If you learn, teach. You can't do anything with that except do it.