Quotes from Maya Angelou

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

To those who are given much, much is expected.

Talent is like electricity. We don't understand electricity. We use it.

Love life. Engage in it. Give it all you've got. Love it with a passion because life truly does give back, many times over, what you put into it.

Each of us has the right and the responsibility to assess the roads which lie ahead, and those over which we have traveled, and if the future road looms ominous or unpromising, and the roads back uninviting, then we need to gather our resolve and, carrying only the necessary baggage, step off that road into another direction. If the new choice is also unpalatable, without embarrassment, we must be ready to change that as well.

Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.

The sisters and brothers that you meet give you the materials which your character uses to build itself. It is said that some people are born great, others achieve it, some have it thrust upon them. In truth, the ways in which your character is built have to do with all three of those. Those around you, those you choose, and those who choose you.

Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for all women.

The human heart...tells us that we are more alike than we are unalike.

While one may encounter many defeats, one must not be defeated.

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

If you're for the right thing, you do it without thinking.

My life has been one great big joke, A dance that's walked, A song that's spoke, I laugh so hard I almost choke, When I think about myself.

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

The Black female is assaulted in her tender years by all those common forces of nature at the same time that she is caught in the tripartite crossfire of masculine prejudice, white illogical hate and Black lack of power. 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.

Live as though life was created for you.

Each of us, famous or infamous, is a role model for somebody, and if we aren't, we should behave as though we are -- cheerful, kind, loving, courteous. Because you can be sure someone is watching and taking deliberate and diligent notes.

The main thing in one's own private world is to try to laugh as much as you cry.

At the end of the day people won't remember what you said or did, they will remember how you made them feel.

I dreamt we walked together along the shore. We made satisfying small talk and laughed. This morning I found sand in my shoe and a seashell in my pocket. Was I only dreaming?

Ain't nothin' to it, but to do it.

As soon as healing takes place, go out and heal somebody else.

The idea is to write it so that people hear it and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the heart.

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