If there is someone out there, someone with vast wisdom, then that someone has poured most of it into Maya Angelou. To list all of her achievements, one first has to know where to start and mentioning her work as a civil rights activist together with such historical figures as Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. would be a good place. Although that's absolutely not the sole achievement of Angelou—she's also an acclaimed author, a correspondent, an actress, producer, a Reynolds Professor, and so much more. Each of her roles has gained her acclaim, 50 honorary titles, and dozens of awards. What's most important, though, is that her words and actions changed societies worldwide and inspired people to be the best versions of themselves.
To paraphrase The Guardian writer Gary Younge, to know Maya Angelou's life story is both to wonder what the heck you have been doing with yours and to feel relieved that you didn't have to go through it all at the same time. Her story starts in the years of the Great Depression deep in the South. After that, it's a whirlwind of events and an array of occupations, each of which definitely added to Angelou's immense wisdom and worldliness. And although all of her words are noteworthy, we've rounded up the most memorable, most impactful Maya Angelou quotes in one place. Be warned, though—you might come out even better than you are after reading her wise words!
However much we'd like to include all of Maya Angelou's motivating quotes on our list, we've restricted ourselves to a hundred and four of them. Still, plenty to read and plenty to absorb! So, as per usual, give your votes for the intelligent quotes that moved you the most, and share this article with anyone in need of encouragement and inspiration!
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“You alone are enough. You have nothing to prove to anybody.”
“My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy.”
“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.”
“Jealousy in romance is like salt in food. A little can enhance the savor, but too much can spoil the pleasure and, under certain circumstances, can be life-threatening”
“At the end of the day people won't remember what you said or did, they will remember how you made them feel.”
“Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Remember, people will judge you by your actions not your intentions. You may have a heart of gold but so does a hard-boiled egg.”
“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.”
“In an unfamiliar culture, it is wise to offer no innovations, no suggestions, or lessons.”
“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!”
“We are not our brother’s keeper; we are our brother and we are our sister. We must look past complexion and see community.“
“Whining is not only graceless, but can be dangerous. It can alert a brute that a victim is in the neighborhood.”
“Poetry is music for the human voice. Until you actually speak it or someone speaks it, it has not come into its own.”
“We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.”
“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.”
“It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.”
“There is nothing so pitiful as a young cynic because he has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing.”
“Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for all women.”
“We allow our ignorance to prevail upon us and make us think we can survive alone, alone in patches, alone in groups, alone in races, even alone in genders.”
“I’m grateful to be of use. I will not be misused or abused, but I will be of use to anybody.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with shades of deeper meaning.”
“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 some things back.”
“A person is the product of their dreams. So make sure to dream great dreams. And then try to live your dream.”
“Each of us has that right, that possibility, to invent ourselves daily. If a person does not invent herself, she will be invented. So, to be bodacious enough to invent ourselves is wise.”
“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 defense when and wherever needed.”
“Seek patience and passion in equal amounts. Patience alone will not build the temple. Passion alone will destroy its walls.”
“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.”
“Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.”
“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.”
“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.”
“I do not need to know all things. I remind myself that it is sufficient that I know what I know and know that without believing that I will always know what I know or that what I know will always be true.”
“Self-pity in its early stages is as snug as a feather mattress. Only when it hardens does it become uncomfortable.”
“Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future, and renders the present inaccessible.”
“If you must look back, do so forgivingly. If you must look forward, do so prayerfully. However, the wisest thing you can do is be present in the present... gratefully.”
“In all my work what I try to say is that as human beings we are more alike than we are unalike.”
“Take a day to heal from the lies you’ve told yourself and the ones that have been told to you.”
“I believe that the most important single thing, beyond discipline and creativity, is daring to dare.”
“The naturally lonely person does not look for comfort in love, but accepts the variables as due course.”
“For years, I had known that there is nothing idle about curiosity, despite the fact that the two words are often used in tandem. Curiosity fidgets, is hard to satisfy, looks for answers even before forming questions.”
“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.”
“Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.”
“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.”
“No matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow.”
“Life is pure adventure, and the sooner we realize that, the quicker we will be able to treat life as art.”
“First best is falling in love. Second best is being in love. Least best is falling out of love. But any of it is better than never having been in love.”
“History, despite its wrenching pain cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage need not be lived again.”
“I've learned that every day you should reach out and touch someone.
People love a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back.”
“When you do nothing you feel overwhelmed and powerless. But when you get involved you feel the sense of hope and accomplishment that comes from knowing you are working to make things better.”
“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.”
“When you know you are of worth — not asking it but knowing it — you walk into a room with a particular power.”
“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.”
“Without willing it, I had gone from being ignorant of being ignorant to being aware of being aware.”
“The intensity with which young people live demands that they "blank out" as often as possible.”
"The honorary duty of a human being is to love.”
No disrespect to Mrs Angelou but her mom clearly knew what is what.
