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

The difference between charity and philanthropy is the distance of the soul... To be philanthropic is to give something, to be charitable is to give one's own heart.

I encourage courtesy. To accept nothing less than courtesy, and to give nothing less than courtesy. If we accept being talked to any kind of a way, then we are telling ourselves we are not quite worth the best. And if we have the effrontery to talk to anybody with less than courtesy, we tell ourselves and the world we are not very intelligent.

You can't really know where you are going until you know where you have been.

Some critics will write 'Maya Angelou is a natural writer' - which is right after being a natural heart surgeon.

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

Every journey begins with a single step.