Maya Angelou Quotes

259 Sourced Quotes

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

Maya Angelou
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.

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

Maya Angelou
When we come to it
We, this people, on this wayward, floating body
Created on this earth, of this earth
Have the power to fashion for this earth
A climate where every man and every woman
Can live freely without sanctimonious piety
And without crippling fear When we come to it
We must confess that we are the possible
We are the miraculous, the true wonders of this world
That is when, and only when
We come to it.

Maya Angelou
Politicians must set their aims for the high ground and according to our various leanings, Democratic, Republican, Independent, we will follow. Politicians must be told if they continue to sink into the mud of obscenity, they will proceed alone.

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
The plague of racism is insidious, entering into our minds as smoothly and quietly and invisibly as floating airborne microbes enter into our bodies to find lifelong purchase in our bloodstreams.

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

Maya Angelou
I walk into a room Just as cool as you please, And to a man, The fellows stand or Fall down on their knees.

Maya Angelou
But what mother and daughter understand each other, or even have the sympathy for each other's lack of understanding?

Maya Angelou
Human beings are more alike than unalike, and what is true anywhere is true everywhere, yet I encourage travel to as many destinations as possible for the sake of education as well as pleasure.

Maya Angelou
If growing up is painful for the Southern Black girl, being aware of her displacement is the rust on the razor that threatens the throat. It is an unncessary insult.

Maya Angelou
All knowledge is spendable currency, depending on the market.

Maya Angelou
In all the institutions I try to be present and accountable for all I do and leave undone. I know that eventually I shall have to be present and accountable n the presence of God. I do not wish to be found wanting.

Maya Angelou
The ship of my life may or may not be sailing on calm and amiable seas. The challenging days of my existence may or may not be bright and promising. 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
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
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
I'm startled or taken aback when people walk up to me and tell me they are Christians. My first response is the question 'Already?'

Maya Angelou
The fact that the adult American Negro female emerges a formidable character is often met with amazement, distaste and even belligerence. It is seldom accepted as an inevitable outcome of the struggle won by survivors and deserves respect if not enthusiastic acceptance.

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
Home is that youthful region where a child is the only real living inhabitant. Parents, siblings, and neighbors are mysterious apparitions who come, go, and do strange unfathomable thing in and around the child, the region's only enfranchised citizen.

Maya Angelou
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Maya Angelou
The intensity with which young people live demands that they "blank out" as often as possible.

Maya Angelou
I find it interesting that the meanest life, the poorest existence, is attributed to God's will, but as human beings become more affluent, as their living standard and style begin to ascend the material scale, God descends the scale of responsibility at commensurate speed.

Maya Angelou
At fifteen life had taught me undeniably that surrender, in its place, was as honorable as resistance, especially if one had no choice.

Maya Angelou
The most called-upon prerequisite of a friend is an accessible ear.

Maya Angelou
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.

Maya Angelou
The world had taken a deep breath and was having doubts about continuing to revolve.

Maya Angelou
Making a decision to write was a lot like deciding to jump into a frozen lake.

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

Maya Angelou