Maya Angelou Quotes

259 Sourced Quotes

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

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
When we give cheerfully and accept gratefully, everyone is blessed.

Maya Angelou
My wish for you
Is that you continue
To let gratitude be the pillow
Upon which you kneel to
Say your nightly prayer.

Maya Angelou
He was a simple man who had no inferiority complex about his lack of education, and even more amazing no superiority complex because he had succeeded despite that lack.

Maya Angelou
Women should be tough, tender, laugh as much as possible, and live long lives.

Maya Angelou
I don't trust people who don't love themselves and tell me "I love you." … There is an African saying which is: "Be careful when a naked person offers you a shirt."

Maya Angelou
My pride had been starched by a family who assumed unlimited authority in its own affairs.

Maya Angelou
Failure?
I'm not ashamed to tell it,
I never learned to spell it.
Not Failure.

Maya Angelou
Lift up your eyes
Upon this day breaking for you.
Give birth again
To the dream.
Here, on the pulse of this new day,
You may have the grace to look up and out
And into your sister's eyes,
And into your brother's face,
Your country,
And say simply
Very simply
With hope
Good morning.

Maya Angelou
I am never proud to participate in violence, yet I know that each of us must care enough for ourselves that we can be ready and able to come to our own defence when and wherever needed.

Maya Angelou
Whites were as constant in our history as the seasons and as unfamiliar as affluence.

Maya Angelou
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.

Maya Angelou
You were a precious pearl
How I loved to see you shine,
You were the perfect girl.
And you were mine.
For a time.
For a time.
Just for a time.

Maya Angelou
The woman who survives intact and happy must be at once tender and tough.

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
Pretty women wonder where my secret lies. I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size But when I start to tell them, They think I'm telling lies. I say, It's in the reach of my arms The span of my hips, The stride of my step, The curl of my lips. I'm a woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, That's me.

Maya Angelou
I believe most plain girls are virtuous because of the scarcity of opportunity to be otherwise.

Maya Angelou
She comprehended the perversity of life, that in the struggle lies the joy.

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

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

Maya Angelou
In an unfamiliar culture, it is wise to offer no innovations, no suggestions, or lessons.

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

Maya Angelou
I believe that one can never leave home. I believe that one carries the shadows, the dreams, the fears and dragons of home under one's skin, at the extreme corners of one's eyes and possibly in the gristle of the earlobe.

Maya Angelou
Never, never let a person know you're frightened. And a group of them... absolutely never. Fear brings out the worst in everybody.

Maya Angelou
Being physically close to extreme power causes one to experience a giddiness, an intoxication.

Maya Angelou
That knowledge humbles me, melts my bones, closes my ears, and makes my teeth rock loosely in their gums. And it also liberates me. I am a big bird winging over high mountains, down into serene valleys. I am ripples of waves on silver seas. I'm a spring leaf trembling in anticipation.

Maya Angelou
Oh, the holiness of being the injured party.

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