You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.

Live life as if it were created just for you.

In order to be profoundly dishonest, a person must have one of two qualities: either he is unscrupulously ambitious, or he is unswervingly egocentric.

Still, when it looked like the sun wasn't going to shine anymore, God put a rainbow in the clouds.

We may encounter many defeats, but we must not be defeated. It may even be necessary to encounter the defeat, so that we can know who we are.

This is what I am learning, at 82 years old: the main thing is to be in love with the search for truth.

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