Maya Angelou

"To describe my mother would be to write about a hurricane in its perfect power."

- Maya Angelou

"We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated."

- Maya Angelou

"Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can’t practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage."

- Maya Angelou

"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."

- Maya Angelou

"The best part of life is not just surviving, but thriving with passion and compassion and humor and style and generosity and kindness."

- Maya Angelou

"Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud."

- Maya Angelou

"Try to be a rainbow in someone else’s cloud."

- Maya Angelou

"You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have."

- Maya Angelou

"We may encounter many defeats, but we must not be defeated."

- Maya Angelou

"Courage is the most important of all the virtues because, without courage, you can’t practice any other virtue consistently."

- Maya Angelou

"Nothing will work unless you do."

- Maya Angelou

"You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them."

- Maya Angelou

"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."

- Maya Angelou

"I’ve learned that making a living is not the same thing as making a life."

- Maya Angelou

"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away."

- Maya Angelou

"I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life’s a bitch. You’ve got to go out and kick ass."

- Maya Angelou

"You can't forgive without loving. And I don't mean sentimentality. I don’t mean mush. I mean having enough courage to stand up and say, 'I forgive. I'm finished with it.'"

- Maya Angelou

"Christmas enters, streaming lights of joy, ringing bells of hope and singing carols of forgiveness high up in the bright air."

- Maya Angelou

"Each time a woman stands up for herself, she stands up for all women."

- Maya Angelou

"I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it."

- Maya Angelou

"I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."

- Maya Angelou

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

- Maya Angelou

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

- Maya Angelou

"Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better."

- Maya Angelou

"My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive."

- Maya Angelou

"Una cosa importante es atreverse a atreverse."

- Maya Angelou

"Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can't practise any other virtue consistently."

- Maya Angelou

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

- Maya Angelou

""I encourage you to live with life. Be courageous, adventurous. Give us a tomorrow, more than we deserve.""

- Maya Angelou

"I have learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."

- Maya Angelou

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

- Maya Angelou

"Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time."

- Maya Angelou

"Love recognizes no barriers."

- Maya Angelou

"A great soul serves everyone all the time. A great soul never dies. It brings us together again and again."

- Maya Angelou

"You alone are enough. You have nothing to prove to anybody."

- Maya Angelou

"In diversity, there is beauty and there is strength."

- Maya Angelou

"The mirror is a silent observer, reflecting the true emotions we often hide from the world."

- Maya Angelou

"I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands. You need to be able to throw something back."

- Maya Angelou

"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."

- Maya Angelou

""I think a hero is any person really intent on making this a better place for all people.""

- Maya Angelou

""I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver.""

- Maya Angelou

""I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.""

- Maya Angelou

"Life loves to be taken by the lapel and be told, ‘I am with you kid. Let’s go!’"

- Maya Angelou

"Success is loving life and daring to live it."

- Maya Angelou

"I encourage you to live with life. Be courageous, adventurous. Give us a tomorrow, more than we deserve."

- Maya Angelou

"Nothing can dim the light that shines from within."

- Maya Angelou

"If I have a monument in this world, it is my son."

- Maya Angelou

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

- Maya Angelou

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

- Maya Angelou

"The desire to reach for the stars is ambitious. The desire to reach hearts is wise."

- Maya Angelou

"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."

- Maya Angelou

"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."

- Maya Angelou

"People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."

- Maya Angelou

"Try to be a rainbow in someone else's cloud."

- Maya Angelou

"We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty."

- Maya Angelou

"And still, I rise."

- Maya Angelou

"Every storm runs out of rain."

- Maya Angelou

"As a nurse, we have the opportunity to heal the mind, soul, heart, and body of our patients. They may forget your name, but they will never forget how you made them feel."

- Maya Angelou

"I think a hero is any person really intent on making this a better place for all people."

- Maya Angelou

"As a nurse we have the opportunity to heal the mind, soul, heart, and body of our patients. They may forget your name, but they will never forget how you made them feel."

- Maya Angelou

"Life is pure adventure, and the sooner we realize that, the sooner we will be able to treat life as art."

- Maya Angelou

"The best comfort food will always be greens, cornbread, and fried chicken."

- Maya Angelou

"Eating is so intimate. It’s very sensual. When you invite someone to sit at your table and you want to cook for them, you’re inviting a person into your life."

- Maya Angelou

"Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud."

- Maya Angelou

"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"

- Maya Angelou

"You will face many defeats in life, but never let yourself be defeated."

- Maya Angelou

"When you learn, teach. When you get, give."

- Maya Angelou

"I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver."

- Maya Angelou

"As Maya Angelou said, 'You alone are capable of changing the quality of your own life.' Make it a fantastic day!"

- Maya Angelou

"To describe my mother would be to write about a hurricane in its perfect power. Or the climbing, falling colors of a rainbow."

- Maya Angelou

"I sustain myself with the love of family."

- Maya Angelou

"If you are always trying to be normal, you’ll never know how amazing you can be."

- Maya Angelou

"Just like moons and like suns, with the certainty of tides, just like hopes springing high, still I’ll rise."

- Maya Angelou

"When I look back, I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature. If I were a young person today, trying to gain a sense of myself in the world, I would do that again by reading, just as I did when I was young."

- Maya Angelou

"There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you."

- Maya Angelou

"Courage is the most important of all virtues because without courage, you can’t practice any other virtue consistently."

- Maya Angelou

"Nothing can dim the light which shines from within."

- Maya Angelou

"I can be changed by what happens to me, but I refuse to be reduced by it."

- Maya Angelou

""You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated.""

- Maya Angelou

"Let choice whisper in your ear and love murmur in your heart. Be ready. Here comes life."

- Maya Angelou

"It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength."

- Maya Angelou

"To be left alone on the tightrope of youthful unknowing is to experience the excruciating beauty of full freedom and the threat of eternal indecision."

- Maya Angelou

"Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can’t practice any other virtue consistently."

- Maya Angelou

"You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated."

- Maya Angelou

"Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for all women."

- Maya Angelou

"As a nurse, we have the opportunity to heal the mind, soul, heart, and body of our patients, their families, and ourselves. They may forget your name, but they will never forget how you made them feel."

- Maya Angelou

"Be present in all things and thankful for all things."

- Maya Angelou

"If you can't change it, change your attitude."

- Maya Angelou

"Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him."

- Maya Angelou

"Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his needs, is good for him."

- Maya Angelou

"Nothing succeeds like success. Get a little success, and then just get a little more."

- Maya Angelou

"I’ve learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow."

- Maya Angelou

"To describe my mother would be to write about a hurricane in its perfect power. Or the climbing, falling colours of a rainbow."

- Maya Angelou

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

- Maya Angelou

"Success is liking yourself, liking what you do and liking how you do it."

- Maya Angelou

"Mostly, what I have learned so far about aging, despite the creakiness of one’s bones and cragginess of one’s once-silken skin, is this: Do it. By all means, do it."

- Maya Angelou

"How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!"

- Maya Angelou

"In the flush of love's light, we dare be brave. And suddenly we see that love costs all we are, and will ever be. Yet it is only love which sets us free."

- Maya Angelou

"The love of the family, the love of one person can heal. It heals the scars left by a larger society."

- Maya Angelou

"The quality of strength lined with tenderness is an unbeatable combination."

- Maya Angelou

"I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights."

- Maya Angelou

"A friend may be waiting behind a stranger’s face."

- Maya Angelou

"If you’re always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be."

- Maya Angelou

"Won’t it be wonderful when Black history and Native American history and Jewish history and all of U.S. history is taught from one book. Just U.S. history."

- Maya Angelou

"Success is often achieved by those who don’t know it is impossible."

- Maya Angelou

"I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature. If I were a young person today, trying to gain a sense of myself in the world, I would do that again by reading, just as I did when I was young."

- Maya Angelou

"You alone are enough. You have nothing to prove to anyone."

- Maya Angelou

"The real difficulty is to overcome how you think about yourself."

- Maya Angelou

"You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have."

- Maya Angelou

"In life's dance, each step forward counts."

- Maya Angelou

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

- Maya Angelou

"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."

- Maya Angelou

"After all those years as a woman hearing, ‘not thin enough, not pretty enough, not smart enough, not thin enough, not that enough,’ almost overnight I woke up one morning and thought, ‘I am enough.’"

- Maya Angelou

"If you are always trying to be normal, you'll never know how amazing you can be."

- Maya Angelou

"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."

- Maya Angelou

"No sun outlasts its sunset, but it will rise again and bring the dawn."

- Maya Angelou

"You have what it takes to be a rainbow in someone else's cloud."

- Maya Angelou

"I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back."

- Maya Angelou

"I got my own back."

- Maya Angelou

"How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes."

- Maya Angelou

"I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better."

- Maya Angelou

"A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song."

- Maya Angelou

"My mother is so full of joy and life. I am her child. And that is better than being the child of anyone else in the world."

- Maya Angelou

"My mother shed her protective love down around me and without knowing why people sensed that I had value."

- Maya Angelou

"A great soul serves everyone all the time A great soul never dies. It brings us together again and again."

- Maya Angelou

"“Nothing succeeds like success. Get a little success, and then just get a little more.”"

- Maya Angelou

"I am woman phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, that’s me."

- Maya Angelou

"Each time a woman stands up for herself she stands up for all women."

- Maya Angelou

"A woman in harmony with her spirit is like a river flowing. She goes where she will without pretense and arrives at her destination prepared to be herself and herself only."

- Maya Angelou

"I am a feminist. I’ve been a female for a long time now. It’d be stupid not to be on my own side."

- Maya Angelou

"A woman in harmony with her spirit is like a river flowing. She goes where she will without pretense and arrives at her destination prepared to be herself and only herself."

- Maya Angelou

"Friendship takes work. Finding friends, nurturing friendships, scheduling face time, it all takes a tremendous amount of work. But it’s worth it. If you put in the effort, you’ll see the rewards of positive friends who will make your life extraordinary."

- Maya Angelou

"And when great souls die, after a period peace blooms, slowly and always irregularly. Spaces fill with a kind of soothing electric vibration. Our senses, restored, never to be the same, whisper to us. They existed. They existed. We can be. Be and be better. For they existed."

- Maya Angelou

"A great soul serves everyone all the time A great soul never dies. It bring us together again and again."

- Maya Angelou

"They may forget your name, but they will never forget how you made them feel."

- Maya Angelou

"People may forget your name, but they will never forget how you made them feel."

- Maya Angelou

"As a nurse we have the opportunity to heal the mind, soul, heart, and body of our patients. They may forget your name but they will never forget how you made them feel."

- Maya Angelou

"A mother’s love liberates."

- Maya Angelou

"If we lose love and self-respect for each other, this is how we finally die."

- Maya Angelou

"We have to confront ourselves. Do we like what we see in the mirror? And, according to our light, according to our understanding, according to our courage, we will have to say yea or nay – and rise!"

- Maya Angelou

"The loss of young first love is so painful that it borders on the ludicrous."

- Maya Angelou

"There is nothing quite so tragic as a young cynic, because it means the person has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing."

- Maya Angelou

"No one comes from the earth like grass. We come like trees. We all have roots."

- Maya Angelou

"I think we all have empathy. We may not have enough courage to display it."

- Maya Angelou

"This is a wonderful day. I have never seen this one before."

- Maya Angelou

"Let gratitude be the pillow upon which you kneel to say your nightly prayer. And let faith be the bridge you build to overcome evil and welcome good."

- Maya Angelou

"This is a wonderful day. I've never seen this one before."

- Maya Angelou

"Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean."

- Maya Angelou

"All great achievements require time."

- Maya Angelou

"We all should know that diversity makes for a rich tapestry, and we must understand that all the threads of the tapestry are equal in value no matter what their color."

- Maya Angelou

"No matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow."

- Maya Angelou

"This is a wonderful day. I’ve never seen this one before."

- Maya Angelou

""Try to be a rainbow in someone else’s cloud.""

- Maya Angelou

"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."

- Maya Angelou

"I note the obvious differences between each sort and type, But we are more alike my friends, than we are unalike."

- Maya Angelou

""You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.""

- Maya Angelou

"Be a rainbow in someone else’s cloud."

- Maya Angelou

""Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him.""

- Maya Angelou

""I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature. If I were a young person today, trying to gain a sense of myself in the world, I would do that again by reading, just as I did when I was young.""

- Maya Angelou

"Be rainbow in someone else's cloud."

- Maya Angelou

"My wish for you is that you continue. Continue to be who you are, to astonish a mean world with your acts of kindness."

- Maya Angelou

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

- Maya Angelou

"Develop enough courage so that you can stand up for yourself and then stand up for somebody else."

- Maya Angelou

"Each person deserves a day away in which no problems are confronted, no solutions searched for. Each of us needs to withdraw from the cares which will not withdraw from us."

- Maya Angelou

"Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently."

- Maya Angelou

"Love may be the matter that keeps the stars in the firmament. It may be. Love allows you to tough and tender."

- Maya Angelou

"A mother's love liberates."

- Maya Angelou

"I am here. I brought my whole self to you. I am your mother."

- Maya Angelou

"Mothers have the ability to liberate by love or, by neglect, to imprison. They’re our first teachers; they are our first loves."

- Maya Angelou

"Ask for what you want and be prepared to get it."

- Maya Angelou

"“I don’t believe an accident of birth makes people sisters or brothers. It makes them siblings, gives them mutuality of parentage. Sisterhood and brotherhood is a condition people have to work at.”"

- Maya Angelou

"Can I do it? I'd rather not try and fail." "That's stupid talk, Maya. Every try will not succeed. But if you're going to live, live at all, your business is trying. And if you fail once, so what? Old folks say, Every shuteye ain't sleep and every goodbye ain't gone. You fail, you get up and try again."

- Maya Angelou

"I don’t believe an accident of birth makes people sisters or brothers. It makes them siblings, gives them mutuality of parentage. Sisterhood and brotherhood is a condition people have to work at."

- Maya Angelou

"It's one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself, to forgive. Forgive everybody."

- Maya Angelou

"You can't forgive without loving. And I don't mean sentimentality. I don't mean mush. I mean having enough courage to stand up and say, 'I forgive. I'm finished with it'."

- Maya Angelou

"What you’re supposed to do when you don’t like a thing is change it. If you can’t change it, change the way you think about it. Don’t complain."

- Maya Angelou

"Nothing can dim a light that shines from within."

- Maya Angelou

"You can’t use up creativity. The more the you use, the more you have."

- Maya Angelou

"If you have only one smile in you, give it to the people you love."

- Maya Angelou

"If you have only one smile in you, give it to the people you love. Don’t be surly at home, then go out in the street and start grinning ‘Good morning’ at total strangers."

- Maya Angelou

"Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness."

- Maya Angelou

"When you know better, you do better."

- Maya Angelou

"And when great souls die, after a period peace blooms, slowly and always irregularly. Spaces fill with a kind of soothing electric vibration. Our senses, restored, never to be the same, whisper to us. They existed. We can be. Be and be better. For they existed."

- Maya Angelou

"The idea is to write it so that people hear it and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the heart."

- Maya Angelou

"A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer; it sings because it has a song."

- Maya Angelou

"When I think of death, and of late the idea has come with alarming frequency, I seem at peace with the idea that a day will dawn when I will no longer be among those living in this valley of strange humors. I can accept the idea of my own demise, but I am unable to accept the death of anyone else. I find it impossible to let a friend or relative go into that country of no return. Disbelief becomes my close companion, and anger follows in its wake. I answer the heroic question ‘Death, where is thy sting? ‘ with ‘ it is here in my heart and mind and memories.’"

- Maya Angelou

"If I could give you one thought, it would be to lift someone up. Lift a stranger up — lift her up. I would ask you, mother and father, brother and sister, lovers, mother and daughter, father and son, lift someone. The very idea of lifting someone up will lift you, as well."

- Maya Angelou

"Let gratitude be the pillow upon which you kneel to say your nightly prayer."

- Maya Angelou

"When you wish someone joy, you wish them peace, love, prosperity, happiness ... all the good things."

- Maya Angelou

"I would do that again by reading, just as I did when I was young"

- Maya Angelou

"Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it"

- Maya Angelou

"Your crown has been bought and paid for. Put it on your head and wear it."

- Maya Angelou

"We delight in the beauty of the butterfly but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty."

- Maya Angelou

"Courage is the most important of all the virtues because, without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently."

- Maya Angelou

"I must undertake to love myself and to respect myself as though my very life depends upon self-love and self-respect."

- Maya Angelou

"I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself."

- Maya Angelou

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

- Maya Angelou

"The ache for home lives in all of us."

- Maya Angelou

"You can never go home again, but the truth is you can never leave home, so it’s all right."

- Maya Angelou

"The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned."

- Maya Angelou

"The ache for home lives in all of us. The safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned."

- Maya Angelou

"It is very important for every human being to forgive herself or himself because if you live, you will make mistakes. It is inevitable."

- Maya Angelou

"No sun outlasts its sunset but will rise again and bring the dawn."

- Maya Angelou

"No sun outlasts its sunset, but will rise again and bring the dawn."

- Maya Angelou

"You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead, pursue the things you love doing, and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off you."

- Maya Angelou

"Still I Rise"

- Maya Angelou

"If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded."

- Maya Angelou

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

- Maya Angelou

"Love recognises no barriers, it jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination, full of hope."

- Maya Angelou

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

- Maya Angelou

"A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song."

- Maya Angelou

"If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities."

- Maya Angelou

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

- Maya Angelou

"You alone are not enough. You have nothing to prove."

- Maya Angelou

"You alone are enough. You have nothing to prove to anybody"

- Maya Angelou

"If you know you can do better then do better."

- Maya Angelou

"I've learned that people will never forget how you made them feel."

- Maya Angelou

"Life loves to be taken by the lapel and be told, 'I am with you kid. Let’s go!'"

- Maya Angelou

"I've learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you'll miss them when they're gone from your life."

- Maya Angelou

"This a wonderful day. I’ve never seen this one before."

- Maya Angelou

"I love living. I love that I’m alive to love my age. There are many people who went to bed just as I did yesterday evening and didn’t wake this morning. I love and feel very blessed that I did."

- Maya Angelou

"We need much less than we think we need."

- Maya Angelou

"You will face many defeats in life, but never let yourself be defeated"

- Maya Angelou

"You can tell a lot about a person by the way they handle three things: a rainy day, lost luggage and tangled Christmas tree lights."

- Maya Angelou

"Continue. Be loving and be strong. Be fierce and be kind. And don’t give in and don’t give up."

- Maya Angelou

"If you get, give. If you learn, teach."

- Maya Angelou

"It is this belief in a power larger than myself and other than myself which allows me to venture into the unknown and even the unknowable."

- Maya Angelou

"“We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.”"

- Maya Angelou

"You may forget my name, but you will never forget how I made you feel."

- Maya Angelou

"Forgive yourself for not knowing what you didn’t know before you learned it."

- Maya Angelou

""Be present in all things and thankful for all things.""

- Maya Angelou

""I sustain myself with the love of family.""

- Maya Angelou

"You can only become truly accomplished at something you love."

- Maya Angelou

"If we lose love and self respect for each other, this is how we finally die."

- Maya Angelou

"Each time a woman stands up for herself without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for all women"

- Maya Angelou

"When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time."

- Maya Angelou

"Try to be a rainbow in someones cloud."

- Maya Angelou

"You can only become accomplished at something you love. Don't make money your goal. Instead pursue the things you love doing and then do them so well that people can't take their eyes off you."

- Maya Angelou

"Pursue the things you love doing, and then do them so well that people can't take their eyes off you."

- Maya Angelou

"Let nothing dim the light that shines from within."

- Maya Angelou

"“Mostly, what I have learned so far about aging, despite the creakiness of one’s bones and cragginess of one’s once-silken skin, is this: Do it. By all means, do it.”"

- Maya Angelou

"I am a woman / Phenomenally / Phenomenal woman / That’s me."

- Maya Angelou

"I’ve been a female for a long time now. It’d be stupid not to be on my own side."

- Maya Angelou

"I’ve learned that making a ‘living’ is not the same thing as ‘making a life.’"

- Maya Angelou

"I'm a feminist. I've been a female for a long time now. It'd be stupid not to be on my own side."

- Maya Angelou

"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, and how you can still come out of it."

- Maya Angelou

"Here on the pulse of this new day, You may have the grace to look up and out And into your sister's eyes, into Your brother's face, your country And say simply, Very simply, With hope, Good Morning."

- Maya Angelou

"In diversity, there is beauty and strength."

- Maya Angelou

"Hoping for the best, preparing for the worst, and unsurprised for anything in between."

- Maya Angelou

"You must not be defeated."

- Maya Angelou

"A leader sees greatness in other people. He nor she can be much of a leader if all she sees is herself."

- Maya Angelou

"Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends."

- Maya Angelou

"If you’re always trying to be normal you will never know how amazing you can be."

- Maya Angelou

"I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life's a bitch. You've got to go out and kick ass."

- Maya Angelou

""All great achievements require time""

- Maya Angelou

"People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel"

- Maya Angelou

""All great achievements require time.""

- Maya Angelou

"All great achievements require time"

- Maya Angelou

""The highest compliment anyone can give me is to say that I’m like my daughter.""

- Maya Angelou

""To describe my mother would be to write about a hurricane in its perfect power. Or the climbing, falling colors of a rainbow.""

- Maya Angelou

"We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty"

- Maya Angelou

"Nothing will work unless you do"

- Maya Angelou

"Hoping for the best, prepared for the worst, and unsurprised by anything in between."

- Maya Angelou

"You do better when you know better."

- Maya Angelou

"You are the sum total of everything you've ever seen, heard, eaten, smelled, been told, forgot—it's all there. Everything influences each of us, and because of that I try to make sure that my experiences are positive."

- Maya Angelou

"If you’re going to live, leave a legacy. Make a mark on the world that cannot be erased."

- Maya Angelou

"The greatest achievement is to still be excited to awaken each morning."

- Maya Angelou

"merely to survive, but to thrive."

- Maya Angelou

"When great trees fall, rocks on distant hills shudder, lions hunker down in tall grasses, and even elephants lumber after safety. When great trees fall in forests, small things recoil into silence, their senses eroded beyond fear. When great souls die, the air around us becomes light, rare, sterile. We breathe, briefly. Our eyes, briefly, see with a hurtful clarity. Our memory, suddenly sharpened, examines, gnaws on kind words unsaid, promised walks never taken. Great souls die and our reality, bound to them, takes leave of us. Our souls, dependent upon their nurture, now shrink, wizened. Our minds, formed and informed by their radiance, fall away. We are not so much maddened as reduced to the unutterable ignorance of dark, cold caves. And when great souls die, after a period peace blooms, slowly and always irregularly. Spaces fill with a kind of soothing electric vibration. Our senses, restored, never to be the same, whisper to us. They existed. They existed. We can be. Be and be better. For they existed."

- Maya Angelou

"The world is nothing but my perception of it.  I see only through myself.  I hear only through the filter of my story."

- Maya Angelou

"My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy. That some people, unable to go to school, were more educated and more intelligent than college professors."

- Maya Angelou

"You can only become accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead pursue the things you love doing and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off you."

- Maya Angelou

"Love is like a virus. It can happen to anybody at any time."

- Maya Angelou

"Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can't practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage."

- Maya Angelou

"I'm convinced of this: Good done anywhere is good done everywhere. For a change, start by speaking to people rather than walking by them like they're stones that don't matter. As long as you're breathing, it's never too late to do some good."

- Maya Angelou

"Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible."

- Maya Angelou

"The thing to do, it seems to me, is to prepare yourself so you can be a rainbow in somebody else's cloud. Somebody who may not look like you. May not call God the same name you call God - if they call God at all. I may not dance your dances or speak your language. But be a blessing to somebody. That's what I think."

- Maya Angelou

"One isn't necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest."

- Maya Angelou

"I learned a long time ago the wisest thing I can do is be on my own side, be an advocate for myself and others like me."

- Maya Angelou

"History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again."

- Maya Angelou

"There's a world of difference between truth and facts. Facts can obscure the truth."

- Maya Angelou

"The more you know of your history, the more liberated you are."

- Maya Angelou

"The most important thing I can tell you about aging is this: If you really feel that you want to have an off-the-shoulder blouse and some big beads and thong sandals and a dirndl skirt and a magnolia in your hair, do it. Even if you're wrinkled."

- Maya Angelou

"I respect myself and insist upon it from everybody. And because I do it, I then respect everybody, too."

- Maya Angelou

"The love of the family, the love of one person can heal. It heals the scars left by a larger society. A massive, powerful society."

- Maya Angelou

"Won't it be wonderful when black history and native American history and Jewish history and all of U.S. history is taught from one book. Just U.S. history."

- Maya Angelou

"While I know myself as a creation of God, I am also obligated to realize and remember that everyone else and everything else are also God's creation."

- Maya Angelou

"The need for change bulldozed a road down the center of my mind."

- Maya Angelou

"Most people don't grow up. It's too damn difficult. What happens is most people get older. That's the truth of it. They honor their credit cards, they find parking spaces, they marry, they have the nerve to have children, but they don't grow up."

- Maya Angelou

"Whatever you want to do, if you want to be great at it, you have to love it and be able to make sacrifices for it."

- Maya Angelou

"If you have only one smile in you give it to the people you love."

- Maya Angelou

"What is a fear of living? It's being preeminently afraid of dying. It is not doing what you came here to do, out of timidity and spinelessness. The antidote is to take full responsibility for yourself - for the time you take up and the space you occupy. If you don't know what you're here to do, then just do some good."

- Maya Angelou

"I have great respect for the past. If you don't know where you've come from, you don't know where you're going. I have respect for the past, but I'm a person of the moment. 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."

- Maya Angelou

"The truth is, no one of us can be free until everybody is free."

- Maya Angelou

"A wise woman wishes to be no one's enemy; a wise woman refuses to be anyone's victim."

- Maya Angelou

"I have a son, who is my heart. A wonderful young man, daring and loving and strong and kind."

- Maya Angelou

"You may write me down in history with your bitter, twisted lines. You may trod me in the very dirt, but still, like dust, I'll rise."

- Maya Angelou

"We are braver and wiser because they existed, those strong women and strong men... We are who we are because they were who they were. It's wise to know where you come from, who called your name."

- Maya Angelou

"Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told: 'I'm with you kid. Let's go.'"

- Maya Angelou

"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."

- Maya Angelou

"My great hope is to laugh as much as I cry; to get my work done and try to love somebody and have the courage to accept the love in return."

- Maya Angelou

"It is impossible to struggle for civil rights, equal rights for blacks, without including whites. Because equal rights, fair play, justice, are all like the air: we all have it, or none of us has it. That is the truth of it."

- Maya Angelou

"There is nothing so pitiful as a young cynic because he has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing."

- Maya Angelou

"My wish for you is that you continue. Continue to be who and how you are, to astonish a mean world with your acts of kindness."

- Maya Angelou

"Hate, it has caused a lot of problems in the world, but has not solved one yet."

- Maya Angelou

"Everything in the universe has a rhythm, everything dances."

- Maya Angelou

"Life is going to give you just what you put in it. Put your whole heart in everything you do, and pray, then you can wait."

- Maya Angelou

"In all my work, what I try to say is that as human beings, we are more alike than we are unalike."

- Maya Angelou

"Stormy or sunny days, glorious or lonely nights, I maintain an attitude of gratitude. If I insist on being pessimistic, there is always tomorrow. Today I am blessed."

- Maya Angelou

"Being free is being able to accept people for what they are, and not try to understand all they are or be what they are."

- Maya Angelou

"Life offers us tickets to places which we have not knowingly asked for."

- Maya Angelou

"Make every effort to change things you do not like. If you cannot make a change, change the way you have been thinking. You might find a new solution."

- Maya Angelou

"Ask for what you want and be prepared to get it!"

- Maya Angelou

"But a bird that stalks down his narrow cage can seldom see through his bars of rage."

- Maya Angelou

"The idea of overcoming is always fascinating to me. It’s fascinating because few of us realize how much energy we have expended just to be here today. I don’t think we give ourselves enough credit for the overcoming."

- Maya Angelou

"If our children are to approve of themselves, they must see that we approve of ourselves."

- Maya Angelou

"You only are free when you realize you belong no place — you belong every place — no place at all. The price is high. The reward is great."

- Maya Angelou

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

- Maya Angelou

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

- Maya Angelou

"Love costs all we are and will ever be. Yet it is only love which sets us free."

- Maya Angelou

"In a world so rife with vulgarity, with brutality and violence, love exists. I’m grateful to know that it exists."

- Maya Angelou

"The human heart is so delicate and sensitive that it always needs some tangible encouragement to prevent it from faltering in its labor."

- Maya Angelou

"Love heals. Heals and liberates. I use the word love, not meaning sentimentality, but a condition so strong that it may be that which holds the stars in their heavenly positions and that which causes the blood to flow orderly in our veins."

- Maya Angelou

"One must learn to care for oneself first, so that one can then dare to care for someone else."

- Maya Angelou

"Never make someone a priority when all you are to them is an option."

- Maya Angelou

"Stepping onto a brand-new path is difficult, but not more difficult than remaining in a situation, which is not nurturing to the whole woman."

- Maya Angelou

"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."

- Maya Angelou

"I would like to be known as an intelligent woman, a courageous woman, a loving woman, a woman who teaches by being."

- Maya Angelou

"I’ve learned that I still have a lot to learn."

- Maya Angelou

"Seek patience and passion in equal amounts. Patience alone will not build the temple. Passion alone will destroy its walls."

- Maya Angelou

"My great hope is to laugh as much as I cry; to get my work done, to try and love somebody and have the courage to accept the love in return."

- Maya Angelou

"The desire to reach the stars is ambitious. The desire to reach hearts is wise and most possible."

- Maya Angelou

"In all my work, in the movies I write, the lyrics, the poetry, the prose, the essays, I am saying that we may encounter many defeats – maybe it’s imperative that we encounter the defeats – but we are much stronger that we appear to be and maybe much better than we allow ourselves to be."

- Maya Angelou

"Continue to be who and how you are, to astonish a mean world with acts of kindness. Continue to allow humour to lighten the burden of your tender heart."

- Maya Angelou

"I’m grateful to be a woman. I must have done something great in another life."

- Maya Angelou

"For Africa to me... is more than a glamorous fact. It is a historical truth. No man can know where he is going unless he knows exactly where he has been and exactly how he arrived at his present place."

- Maya Angelou

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

- Maya Angelou

"Won’t it be wonderful when black history and Native American history and Jewish history and all of U.S. history is taught from one book. Just U.S. history."

- Maya Angelou

"Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise. I rise. I rise."

- Maya Angelou

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

- Maya Angelou

"I’ve learned that making a ‘living’ is not the same thing as ‘making a life’."

- Maya Angelou

"Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave."

- Maya Angelou

"Today, refuse to settle for anything less than what lifts your spirit and challenges your mind."

- Maya Angelou

"We clap hands and welcome the Peace of Christmas. We beckon this good season to wait a while with us."

- Maya Angelou

"Be a rainbow in somebody else’s cloud."

- Maya Angelou

"I have a son who is my heart. A wonderful young man, daring and loving and strong and kind."

- Maya Angelou

"My son is my strength, the heartbeat that keeps me going."

- Maya Angelou

"My greatest blessing has been the birth of my son. My next greatest blessing has been my ability to turn people into children of mine."

- Maya Angelou

"Courage is the most important of virtues because, without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently."

- Maya Angelou

"Courage allows the successful person to fail and learn powerful lessons from the failure so that in the end, they don’t fail at all."

- Maya Angelou

""I am a woman / Phenomenally / Phenomenal woman / That's me.""

- Maya Angelou

"not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them."

- Maya Angelou

"As a nurse, we have the opportunity to heal the heart, mind, soul, and body of our patients, their families, and ourselves. They may forget your name, but they will never forget how you made them feel."

- Maya Angelou

""We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.""

- Maya Angelou

""As a nurse, we have the opportunity to heal the heart, mind, soul and body of our patients, their families and ourselves. They may forget your name, but they will never forget how you made them feel.""

- Maya Angelou

""You may forget my name, but you will never forget how I made you feel.""

- Maya Angelou

"I always knew from that moment, from the time I found myself at home in that little segregated library in the South, all the way up until I walked up the steps of the New York City library, I always felt, in any town, if I can get to a library, I'll be OK. It really helped me as a child, and that never left me."

- Maya Angelou

"In so many ways, segregation shaped me, and education liberated me."

- Maya Angelou

"I will look after you and I will look after anybody you say needs to be looked after, any way you say. I am here. I brought my whole self to you. I am your mother."

- Maya Angelou

""We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.""

- Maya Angelou

""You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead pursue the things you love doing and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off of you.""

- Maya Angelou

"I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver. Collaboration is truly the key to making a difference."

- Maya Angelou

""Try to be a rainbow in someone else's cloud.""

- Maya Angelou

""My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive.""

- Maya Angelou

"My wish for you is that you continue. Continue to be who and how you are, to astonish a mean world with your acts of kindness. Continue to allow humor to lighten the burden of your tender heart."

- Maya Angelou

"You don't have to think about doing the right thing. If you're for the right thing, then you do it without thinking."

- Maya Angelou

"Everybody born comes from the Creator trailing wisps of glory. We come from the Creator with creativity. I think that each one of us is born with creativity."

- Maya Angelou

"You are the sum total of everything you’ve ever seen, heard, eaten, smelled, been told, forgot — it’s all there. Everything influences each of us, and because of that I try to make sure that my experiences are positive."

- Maya Angelou

"If they want to learn how to live life right; they ought to study on Saturday night."

- Maya Angelou

"People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel."

- Maya Angelou

"Courage allows the successful woman to fail and learn powerful lessons from the failure. So that in the end, she didn't fail at all."

- Maya Angelou

"When I think of death, and of late the idea has come with alarming frequency, I seem at peace with the idea that a day will dawn when I no longer be among those living in this valley of strange humors. I can accept the idea of my own demise, but I am unable to accept the death of anyone else. I find it impossible to let a friend or relative go into that country to no return. Disbelief becomes my close companion, and anger follows in its wake. I answer the heroic question 'Death, where is thy sting?' with 'It is here in my heart and mind and memories.'"

- Maya Angelou

"A wise woman wishes to be no one’s enemy; a wise woman refuses to be anyone’s victim."

- Maya Angelou

"I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life’s a b*tch. You’ve got to go out and kick ass."

- Maya Angelou

"A woman’s heart should be so hidden in God that a man has to seek Him just to find her."

- Maya Angelou

"If you’re serious, you really understand that it’s important that you laugh as much as possible and admit that you’re the funniest person you ever met. You have to laugh. Admit that you’re funny. Otherwise, you die in solemnity."

- Maya Angelou

"A bird does not sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song."

- Maya Angelou

"Breathe in the fresh air, soak up the sunshine, and let your soul dance to the rhythm of the weekend. Happy Saturday!"

- Maya Angelou

"I restore myself when I’m alone."

- Maya Angelou

"I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back."

- Maya Angelou

"You are the sum total of everything you've ever seen, heard, eaten, smelled, been told, forgot—it's all there."

- Maya Angelou

"Hate. It has caused a lot of problems in this world, but it has not solved one yet."

- Maya Angelou

"Most people don't grow up. Most people age. They find parking spaces, honor their credit cards, get married, have children, and call that maturity. What that is, is aging."

- Maya Angelou

"I am convinced that most people do not grow up...We marry and dare to have children and call that growing up. I think what we do is mostly grow old. We carry accumulation of years in our bodies, and on our faces, but generally our real selves, the children inside, are innocent and shy as magnolias."

- Maya Angelou

"I'm grateful to be a woman. I must have done something great in another life."

- Maya Angelou

"We have to confront ourselves. Do we like what we see in the mirror? And, according to our light, according to our understanding, according to our courage, we will have to say yea or nay - and rise!"

- Maya Angelou

"“I am grateful to be a woman. I must have done something great in another life.”"

- Maya Angelou

"If someone shows you who they are, believe them."

- Maya Angelou

"The flame of passion may waver in the face of challenges, but with persistence, it can grow into an unstoppable wildfire."

- Maya Angelou

"“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”"

- Maya Angelou

"The honorary duty of a human being is to love."

- Maya Angelou

"A woman in harmony with her spirit is like a river flowing. She goes where she will without pretense and arrives at her destination prepared to be herself, and only herself."

- Maya Angelou

"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."

- Maya Angelou

"You may kill me with your hatefulness. But still, like air, I’ll rise."

- Maya Angelou

"Hold those things that tell your history and protect them. During slavery, who was able to read or write or keep anything? The ability to have somebody to tell your story to is so important. It says: ‘I was here. I may be sold tomorrow. But you know I was here.’"

- Maya Angelou

"As soon as healing takes place, go out and heal somebody else."

- Maya Angelou

"is that you continue. Continue to be who you are, to astonish a mean world with your acts of kindness."

- Maya Angelou

"I looked up the road I was going and back the way I come, and since I wasn’t satisfied, I decided to step off the road and cut me a new path."

- Maya Angelou

"I became the kind of parent my mother was to me."

- Maya Angelou

"You can’t use up creativity. The more you use the more you have."

- Maya Angelou

""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.""

- Maya Angelou

""As soon as healing takes place, go out and heal somebody else.""

- Maya Angelou

"You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can control your attitude toward them."

- Maya Angelou

"I've learned that making a living is not the same thing as making a life."

- Maya Angelou

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

- Maya Angelou

"Yet if we are bold, love strikes away the chains of fear from our souls. We are weaned from our timidity In the flush of love's light we dare be brave And suddenly we see that love costs all we are and will ever be. Yet it is only love which sets us free."

- Maya Angelou

"People will forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel."

- Maya Angelou

"Still I rise"

- Maya Angelou

"There is no greater gift than the dedication to service."

- Maya Angelou

""Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.""

- Maya Angelou

"Independence is a heady draft, and if you drink it in your youth, it can have the same effect on the brain as young wine does. It does not matter that its taste is not always appealing. It is addictive and with each drink you want more."

- Maya Angelou

"Be a rainbow in someone else's cloud."

- Maya Angelou

"You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don't make money your goal. Instead, pursue the things you love doing, and then do them so well that people can't take their eyes off you."

- Maya Angelou

"People will soon forget what you said. They will NEVER forget how you made them feel."

- Maya Angelou

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

- Maya Angelou

"If you don’t know what you’re here to do, then just do some good."

- Maya Angelou

"I learned a long time ago the wisest thing I can do is be on my own side."

- Maya Angelou

"life is tough but so are you"

- Maya Angelou