Maya Angelou Quotes

We write for the same reason that we walk, talk, climb mountains or swim the oceans — because we can. We have some impulse within us that makes us want to explain ourselves to other human beings. That’s why we paint, that’s why we dare to love someone- because we have the impulse to explain who we are. Not just how tall we are, or thin… but who we are internally… perhaps even spiritually. There’s something, which impels us to show our inner-souls. The more courageous we are, the more we succeed in explaining what we know.

Don't trust people who don't laugh. I don't.

Oh, the holiness of being the injured party.

Everybody in the world wants the same thing...to be needed...a job that he/she can do well...to love somebody...Everybody...There's no mystery.

The needs of a society determine its ethics.

When we cast our bread upon the waters we can presume that someone downstream whose face we will never know will benefit from our action, as we who are downstream from another will profit from the grantor's gift.

People will never forget how you made them feel.

I also wear a hat or a very tightly pulled head tie when I write. I suppose I hope by doing that I will keep my brains from seeping out of my scalp and running in great gray blobs down my neck, into my ears, and over my face.

Intelligence is a separate gift, for the benefit of students, so that they may think of themselves as intellectual and not very intelligent, or intelligent and not very intellectual. One hopes, of course, that they try to bring the two virtues, the two elements, into their lives at the same time.

Having courage does not mean we are unafraid.

If men are God's gift to women, then God must really love gag gifts.

If a person - any human being - is told often enough, "You are nothing. You are nothing. You account for nothing. You count for nothing. You are less than a human being. I have no visibility of you", the person finally begins to believe it.

You have to develop ways so that you can take up for yourself, and then you take up for someone else. And so sooner or later, you have enough courage to really stand up for the human race and say, 'I'm a representative. '

Modesty is a learned affectation. And as soon as life slams the modest person against the wall, that modesty drops.

Forgiveness. It's one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself, to forgive. Forgive everybody. You are relieved of carrying that burden of resentment. You really are lighter. You feel lighter. You just drop that.

Happiness is a chance to talk to a friend, to hear good music, to have a good glass of wine. Happiness is a chance to be myself and to find people with whom I agree or who I don't agree but I can learn something.

Love liberates. It doesn't just hold, that's ego. Love liberates.

Look what you've already come through! Don't deny it. Say I'm stronger than I thought I was

If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude.

Each of us has that right, that possibility, to invent ourselves daily.

Whether you are happy or whether you are sad, it is wise to remember you are really in process.

Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.

When things were very bad his soul just crawled behind his heart and curled up and went to sleep

We spend precious hours fearing the inevitable. It would be wise to use that time adoring our families, cherishing our friends and living our lives.

I might have it at six-fifteen a.m. just as soon as I get in, but usually it's about eleven o'clock when I'll have a glass of sherry.

I do hope that young men and women will start to think for themselves and start to take responsibility for their own thoughts.

Always in the black spirituals there's that promise that things are going to be better, by and by.

I like to speak on matters which matter to human beings, and almost everything matters to human beings.

Determine to live life with flair and laughter.

At the end of the day people won't remember what you said or did, they will remember how you made them feel.

There is a kind of strength that is almost frightening in Black women. It's as if a steel rod runs right through the head down to the feet.

I believe that the most important single thing, beyond discipline and creativity is daring to dare.

The horizon leans forward, offering you space to place new steps of change.

Achievement brings its own anticlimax.

You may shoot me with your words, you may cut me with your eyes, you may kill me with your hatefulness, but still, like air, I'll rise!

Laugh as often as possible. You must. Because the world will offer you every reason to weep. So as often as possible, you laugh. That, I think, is part of the Great Love.

I thought if war did not include killing, I'd like to see one every year.

Be the rainbow in someone else's cloud.

At our best, we are all teachers

Don't bring negative to my door.

Through the centuries, we faced down death by daring to hope.

By love I don't mean indulgence. I do not mean sentimentality. And in this instance, I don't even mean romance. I mean that condition that allowed humans to dream of God.That condition that allowed the "dumb" to write spirituals and Russian songs and Irish lilts. That is love, and it's so much larger than anything I can conceive.

We can learn to see each other and see ourselves in each other and recognize that human beings are more alike than we are unalike.

In all the world, there is no heart for me like yours. In all the world, there is no love for you like mine.

I'm considered wise, and sometimes I see myself as knowing. Most of the time, I see myself as wanting to know. And I see myself as a very interested person. I've never been bored in my life.

Thank you, always say thank you; it's the greatest gift you can give someone; because thank you is what you say to God.

But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams.

My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy.