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Inspirational Quotations

by RightAttitudes.com

Inspirational Quotations by Maya Angelou (American Poet)

Inspirational Quotations by Maya Angelou (American Poet)

Maya Angelou (1928–2014,) born Marguerite Ann Johnson, was an African-American poet, author, singer, dancer, playwright, director, actor, professor, and civil rights activist. Her seven autobiographies, three books of essays, and several books of poetry, chronicled the African American experience in literature.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1970,) Angelou’s first autobiography, told the story of her life up to the age of seventeen. Angelou’s account of her harrowing childhood in Arkansas, her segregation in southern schools, and the beginning of her relationship with literature brought her international recognition and acclaim.

In January 1993, at Bill Clinton‘s first inauguration, Angelou became the second poet, the first African-American, and the first woman to recite a poem at a presidential inauguration. She wrote and recited the poem “On the Pulse of Morning” to emphasize unity, social change, and public responsibility.

Angelou inspired generations of fans with her enthusiasm to share the wisdom she acquired from the struggle of her childhood of abuse, the oppression in the American Deep South in the 1930s, and her early adult experiences.

More: Wikipedia (via CC-BY-SA license) • READ: Works by Maya Angelou

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Inspirational Quotations by Maya Angelou

It is the 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
Topics: Belief

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
Topics: Hope

There’s a world of difference between truth and facts. Facts can obscure the truth.
—Maya Angelou
Topics: Truth, Information

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

Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told: “I’m with you kid. Let’s go.”
—Maya Angelou
Topics: Life, Life and Living

The caged bird sings with a fearful trill,
of things unknown, but longed for still,
and his tune is heard on the distant hill,
for the caged bird sings of freedom.
—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
Topics: People, Feelings, Role models, Mentoring

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

The first time someone shows you who they are, believe them.
—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

We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.
—Maya Angelou
Topics: Defeat

I am overwhelmed by the grace and persistence of my people.
—Maya Angelou
Topics: Grace

Children’s talent to endure stems from their ignorance of alternatives.
—Maya Angelou
Topics: Children

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

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 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

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.
—Maya Angelou
Topics: Jealousy

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.
—Maya Angelou
Topics: Solitude, Isolation

Courage is the most important of all the virtues … 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

How important it is to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes.
—Maya Angelou

If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities.
—Maya Angelou
Topics: Luck

A woman who is convinced that she deserves to accept only the best, challenges herself to give the best. Then she is living phenomenally.
—Maya Angelou
Topics: Women

It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.
—Maya Angelou
Topics: Parents

Something made greater by ourselves and in turn that makes us greater.
—Maya Angelou
Topics: Work

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

If we lose love and self respect for each other, this is how we finally die.
—Maya Angelou
Topics: Self-respect

You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.
—Maya Angelou

Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.
—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
Topics: Courage, Ethics, Potential, Virtue

The honorary duty of a human being is to love.
—Maya Angelou

I do not trust people who don’t love themselves and yet tell me, “I love you.” There is an African saying which is: “Be careful when a naked person offers you a shirt.”
—Maya Angelou

I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way (s)he handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.
—Maya Angelou

Ask For What You Want And Be Prepared To Get It.
—Maya Angelou

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

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

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

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
Topics: Tolerance, Travel, Worry

The needs of society determine its ethics.
—Maya Angelou

Life is pure adventure and the sooner we realize that, the quicker we will be able to treat life as art.
—Maya Angelou
Topics: Life

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

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
Topics: Family

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’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with a catchers mitt on both hands. You need to be able to throw something back.
—Maya Angelou
Topics: Helping

Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean.
—Maya Angelou
Topics: Anger, Bitterness, Cancer

The desire to reach the stars is ambitious. The desire to reach hearts is wise and most possible.
—Maya Angelou

People may not remember exactly what you did, or what you said, but, they will always remember how you made them feel.
—Maya Angelou

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

I sustain myself with the love of family.
—Maya Angelou

No sun outlasts its sunset but will rise again and bring the dawn.
—Maya Angelou

History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.
—Maya Angelou
Topics: History

If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. Don’t complain.
—Maya Angelou
Topics: Change, Simplicity, Simple Living

Never make someone a priority when all you are to them is an option.
—Maya Angelou

Live life as if it were created just for you.
—Maya Angelou
Topics: Living

Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.
—Maya Angelou
Topics: Entrepreneurs

Love is like a virus. It can happen to anybody at any time.
—Maya Angelou
Topics: Love

When a person shows you who they really are, believe them.
—Maya Angelou

It’s one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself, to forgive. Forgive everybody.
—Maya Angelou

Nothing can dim the light which shines from within.
—Maya Angelou

There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.
—Maya Angelou

There is a very fine line between loving life and being greedy for it.
—Maya Angelou
Topics: Life, Lust For

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

Nothing will work unless you do.
—Maya Angelou

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