Quotes from Maya Angelou

This is a wonderful day, I have never seen this one before.

Words are things. You must be careful, careful about calling people out of their names, using racial pejoratives and sexual pejoratives and all that ignorance. Don't do that. Some day we'll be able to measure the power of words. I think they are things. They get on the walls. They get in your wallpaper. They get in your rugs, in your upholstery, and your clothes, and finally in to you.

One isn't necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We cannot be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.

My wish for you is that you continue. Continue to be who and how you are, to astonish a mean world with your acts of kindness. Continue to allow humor to lighten the burden of your tender heart.

Ritie, don't worry 'cause you ain't pretty. Plenty pretty women I seen digging ditches or worse. You smart. I swear to God, I rather you have a good mind than a cute behind.

Make every effort to change things you do not like. If you cannot make a change, change the way you have been thinking. You might find a new solution.

To be left alone on the tightrope of youthful unknowing is to experience the excruciating beauty of full freedom and the threat of eternal indecision.

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

Without willing it, I had gone from being ignorant of being ignorant to being aware of being aware. And the worst part of my awareness was that I didn't know what I was aware of. I knew I knew very little, but I was certain that the things I had yet to learn wouldn't be taught to me at George Washington High School.

We all should know that diversity makes for a rich tapestry, and we must understand that all the threads of the tapestry are equal in value no matter what their color.

Don't let the man bring you down.

We are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike.

I hope that I may always desire more than I can accomplish.

Strong women- precious jewels all- their humanness is evident in their accessibility. We are able to enter into the spirit of these women and rejoice in their warmth and courage.

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

At fifteen life had taught me undeniably that surrender, in its place, was as honorable as resistance, especially if one had no choice.

I've got a magic charm That I keep up my sleeve, I can walk the ocean floor And never have to breathe.

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

How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!

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 would like to be known as an intelligent woman, a courageous woman, a loving woman, a woman who teaches by being.

You only are free when you realize you belong no place — you belong every place — no place at all.

Just like moons and suns, With certainty of tides, Just like hopes springing high, Still I'll rise.

It is this belief in a power larger than myself and other than myself which allows me to venture into the unknown and even the unknowable.