Maya Angelou Quotes

Be present in all things and thankful for all things.

Writing and cookery are just two different means of communication.

I am a WomanPhenomenally.Phenomenal Woman,that's me.

Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continui...

I never expected anyone to take care of me, but in my wildest dreams and juvenile yearnings, I wante...

It's good to remember that in crises, natural crises, human beings forget for awhile their ignorance...

I'm just someone who likes cooking and for whom sharing food is a form of expression.

Information helps you to see that you're not alone. That there's somebody in Mississippi and somebod...

I liked to write from the time I was about 12 or 13. I loved to read. And since I only spoke to my b...

Most people don't grow up. Most people age. They find parking spaces, honor their credit cards, get ...

Courage - you develop courage by doing small things like just as if you wouldn't want to pick up a 1...

You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encoun...

I wrote some of the worst poetry west from the Mississippi River, but I wrote. And I finally sometim...

I find in my poetry and prose the rhythms and imagery of the best - I mean, when I'm at my best - of...

Alone"Lying, thinkingLast nightHow to find my soul a homeWhere water is not thirstyAnd bread loaf is...

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

Eating is so intimate. It's very sensual. When you invite someone to sit at your table and you want ...

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

I'll never know why it was important to him that the couple (he said it later that he'd never seen t...

Won't it be wonderful when black history and native American history and Jewish history and all of U...

While the rest of the world has been improving technology, Ghana has been improving the quality of m...

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

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

In all my work, in the movies I write, the lyrics, the poetry, the prose, the essays, I am saying th...

The poetry you read has been written for you, each of you - black, white, Hispanic, man, woman, gay,...

My great hope is to laugh as much as I cry to get my work done and try to love somebody and have the...

When Great Trees FallWhen great trees fall,rocks on distant hills shudder,lions hunker downin tall g...

Nothing can dim the light which shines from within.

I couldn't tell fact from fiction,Or if the dream was trueMy only sure predictionIn this world was y...

Everything in the universe has a rhythm, everything dances.

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

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

My mom was a terrible parent of young children. And thank God - I thank God every time I think of it...

We write for the same reason that we walk , talk, climb mountains or swim the oceans - because we ca...

I answer the heroic question, 'Death, where is thy sting?' with 'It is in my heart and mind and memo...

I'm convinced of this: Good done anywhere is good done everywhere. For a change, start by speaking t...

You have to develop ways so that you can take up for yourself, and then you take up for someone else...

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

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

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

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

One isn't necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot ...

We wear the mask that grins and lies.It shades our cheeks and hides our eyes.This debt we pay to hum...

If you happen to be white in a white country; pretty according to the dictates of fashion; rich in a...

I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands you need to be a...

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

It is this belief in a power larger than myself and other than myself which allows me to venture int...

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

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

You can only become great at that thing you're willing to sacrifice for.

I'm happy to be a writer - of prose, poetry, every kind of writing. Every person in the world who is...

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

Out of the huts of history's shameI riseUp from a past that's rooted in painI riseI'm a black ocean,...

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

We, the black people, the most displaced, the poorest, the most maligned and scourged, we had the gl...

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

Those of us who submitted or surrendered our ideas and dreams and identities to the 'leaders' must t...

When younger writers and poets, musicians and painters are weakened by a stemming of funds, they com...

All great artists draw from the same resource: the human heart, which tells us that we are all more ...

Our stories come from our lives and from the playwright's pen, the mind of the actor, the roles we c...

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

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

You can't forgive without loving. And I don't mean sentimentality. I don't mean mush. I mean having ...

Whenever something went wrong when I was young - if I had a pimple or if my hair broke - my mom woul...

There were people who went to sleep last night, poor and rich and white and black, but they will nev...

Courage is the most important of all virtues because without it we can't practice any other virtue ...

Politicians must set their aims for the high ground and according to our various leanings, Democrati...

I am overwhelmed by the grace and persistence of my people.

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

I’m grateful for being here, for being able to think, for being able to see, for being able to taste...

The only thing is, people have to develop courage. It is most important of all the virtues. Because ...

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

Stepping onto a brand-new path is difficult, but not more difficult than remaining in a situation, w...

What is a fear of living? It's being preeminently afraid of dying. It is not doing what you came her...

I love the song 'I Hope You Dance' by Lee Ann Womack. I was going to write that song, but someone be...

I love wisdom. And you can never be great at anything unless you love it. Not be in love with it, bu...

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

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

What you're supposed to do when you don't like a thing is change it. If you can't change it, change ...

Each person deserves a day away in which no problems are confronted, no solutions searched for.

Every person needs to take one day away.  A day in which one consciously separates the past from the...

Whining is not only graceless, but can be dangerous. It can alert a brute that a victim is in the ne...

That knowledge humbles me, melts my bones, closes my ears, and makes my teeth rock loosely in their ...

Living well is an art that can be developed: a love of life and ability to take great pleasure from ...

Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry,...

Since time is the one immaterial object which we cannot influence—neither speed up nor slow down, ad...

Each of us has the right and the responsibility to assess the roads which lie ahead, and those over ...

If more Africans had eaten missionaries, the continent would be in better shape.

Don't let the man bring you down.

Every person under the sound of my voice is a soldier. You are either fighting for your freedom or b...

The black mother perceives destruction at every door, ruination at each window, and even she herself...

Sugar cane reach up to GodAnd every baby cryingShame the blanket of my nightAnd all my days are dyin...

There is a very fine line between loving life and being greedy for it.

Poetry puts starch in your backbone so you can stand, so you can compose your life.

You may write me down in history with your bitter, twisted lines. You may trod me in the very dirt, ...

My life has been long, and believing that life loves the liver of it, I have dared to try many thing...

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

While the rest of the world has been improving technology, Ghana has been improving the quality of m...

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

This bed yawnsbeneath the weightof our absent selves.

No,nobody but nobody can make it out her alone.