Quotes from Maya Angelou

I couldn't decide on any move, so I recited a few Bible verses, and went home.

Now they seemed not ready to give up the old school, the familiar paths and classrooms.

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. Does

Although there is nothing amusing about racial discrimination, the oppressed find funny things to say about it. The white folks are so prejudiced in my town, a colored person is not allowed to eat vanilla ice cream.

Does my sassiness upset you? Why are you beset with gloom?

For a few seconds it was a tossup over whether I would laugh (imagine being named Hallelujah) or cry (imagine letting some white woman rename you for her convenience).

Mrs. Cullinan was right about one thing. My name wasn't Mary.

In later years I asked her if she loved me and she brushed me off with; God is love. Just worry about whether you're being a good girl, then He will love you.

never make someone a priority, when all you are is just a option.

I will look after you and I will look after anybody you say needs to be looked after, any way you say. I am here. I brought my whole self to you. I am your mother." (1986)

We French, we have never, never, never had slavery, so we feel we don't understand the American racism." Maybe

I don't think she understood half of what she was saying herself, but, after all, girls have to giggle, and after being a woman for three years I was about to become a girl.

The world had ended, and I was the only person who knew it. People walked along the streets as if the pavements hadn't all crumbled beneath their feet.

La esencia se escapa, pero su aura permanece

When you see me sitting quietly, Like a sack left on the shelf, Don't think I need your chattering. I'm listening to myself. Hold!

In Stamps the segregation was so complete that most Black children didn't really absolutely know what whites looked like. Other than that they were different, to be dreaded, and in that dread was included the hostility of the powerless against the powerful, the poor against the rich, the worker against the worked for and the ragged against the well dressed.

El talento de los niños para resistir se debe a su ignorancia de otras posibilidades.

It was understood that I didn't lie because I was too proud to be caught and forced to admit that I was capable of less than Olympian action.

Some kind of love, Some Say Is it true the ribs can tell the kick Of a beast from a lover's fist? The bruised bones record it well The sudden shock, the hard impact Then swollen lids Sorry eyes spoke not of lost romance But of hurt Hate is often confused Its limits are in zones beyond itself And sadists will not learn that Love, by nature, extracts a pain Unequalled on the rack

In Stamps the segregation was so complete that most Black children didn't really, absolutely know what whites looked like. Other than that they were different, to be dreaded, and in that dread was included the hostility of the powerless against the powerful, the poor against the rich, the worker against the worked for and the ragged against the well dressed. I remember never believing that whites were really real.

They fought too hard, they loved too well. My crime is I'm alive to tell.

Most surrender to the vague but murderous pressure of adult conformity. It becomes easier to die and avoid conflicts than to maintain a constant battle with the superior forces of maturity. Until

If you know that youth is dying on the run and my daughter trades dope stories with your son we'd better see what all our fearing and our jeering and our crying and our lying brought about. Take Time Out.

we drove up to the three-shaded house