Quotes from Maya Angelou

We had expected three cots in our room, but found one large lumpy bed, a very worn carpet and a single overhead light. "You mean this is what these people got out of their revolution?" Martha daintily picked her way around the room. "Someone should tell them that they're about due for another." She wrinkled her pretty face in distaste. Ethel

I am a builder Sometimes I have built well, but often I have built without researching the ground Upon which I put my building

A textured guilt was my familiar, my bedmate to whom I had turned my back.

I reasoned that I had given up some youth for knowledge, but my gain was more valuable than the loss.

I was young, yes, unmarried, yes - but I was a mother, and that placed me nearer to the people.

When access to a better life has been denied often enough, and successfully enough, one can use the rejection as an excuse to cease all efforts [...] And if I do nothing, I have every right to my idleness, for, after all, haven't I tried?

Open your eyes to the beauty around you, open your mind to the wonders of life, open your heart to those who love you, and always be true to yourself.

Maya Angelou @DrMayaAngelou Our Summer's gone The golden days are through The rosy dawn I used to wait with you Has turned to gray My life has turned to blue.- Maya Angelou's poem with Nancy Wilson's song My Life Has Turned To Blue. We send our deepest condolences to the family of #NancyWilson

Only the secure can bear the weight of a joke and only the very secure can join in the laughter.

He badder than death yet gives no sweet release.

Nothing's wrong with going to jail for something you believe in. Remember, jail was made for people. Not horses.

Life's a bitch, you've got to go out and kick ass.

The needs of a society determine its ethics, and in the Black American ghettos the hero is that man who is offered only the crumbs from his country's table but by ingenuity and courage is able to take for himself a Lucullan feast.

Blithering ignorance can be found wherever you choose to live.

We delight in the beauty of the butterfly.

Rise and be prepared to move on and ever on.

Baby, let me tell you what's going to happen. In a few years, there are going to be beautiful posters of Malcolm X, and his photographs will be everywhere. The same people who don't give a damn now will lie and say they always supported him.

You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them. Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud. Do not complain. Make every effort to change things you o not like. If you cannot make a change, change the way you have been thinking. You might find a new solution. Never whine. Whining lets a brute know that a victim is in the neighbourhood. Be certain that you do not die without having done something wonderful for humanity.

I find it interesting that the meanest life, the poorest existence, is attributed to God's will, but as human beings become more affluent, as their living standard and style begin to ascend the material scale, God descends the scale of responsibility at a commensurate speed.

I was crying loudly now. Momma's voice had risen to a shouting pitch, and I knew that whatever wrong I had committed was extremely serious.

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

Peace means when there is conflict, use our common sense and our compassion to consider rest of humanity, our human brothers and sisters.

Who would answer all the questions, fulfill all the requests? Would anyone? Could anyone? History had taught the citizens of Watts to hope for the best and expect nothing, but be prepared for the worst.

Whitefolks couldn't be people because their feet were too small, their skin too white and see-throughy, and they didn't walk on the balls of their feet the way people did - they walked on their heels like horses.