Quotes from Maya Angelou

Their marriage was a happy one. Grandfather had a famous saying that caused great pride in his family: "Bah Jesus, I live for my wife, my children and my dog." He took extreme care to prove that statement true by taking the word of his family even in the face of contradictory evidence.

I have had the fortune of stepping out on the Word of God and have found it steady

People will forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.

If a little learning is dangerous, a little fame can be devastating.

My eyes absorb the world's variety and uniqueness.

In a Time In a time of secret wooing Today prepares tomorrow's ruin Left knows not what right is doing My heart is torn asunder. In a time of furtive sighs Sweet hellos and sad goodbyes Half-truths told and entire lies My conscience echoes thunder. In a time when kingdoms come Joy is brief as summer's fun Happiness, its race has run Then pain stalks in to plunder.

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

They knew the burden of feminine sensibilities suffocated by masculine responsibilities.

Your smile, delicate rumor of peace.

If we tolerate vulgarity, our future will sway and fall under a burden of ignorance.

A lack of courage allows us to remain blinded to our own history and deaf to the cries of our past.

If I am comfortable inside my skin, I have the ability to make other people comfortable inside their skins.

If it is true that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, isn't it also true a society is only as healthy as its sickest citizen and only as wealthy as its most deprived? I believe so.

Mostly, what I have learned so far about ageing, despite the creakiness of one's bones and the cragginess of one's once-silken skin, is this: do it. By all means, do it.

Great art belongs to all people, all the time—indeed it is made for the people by the people.

Every person needs a place that is furnished with hope.

When I'm writing, I am trying to find out who I am, who we are, what we're capable of, how we feel, how we lose and stand up, and go on from darkness into darkness." —

I must undertake to love myself and to respect myself as though my very life depends upon self-love and self-respect.

But on that onerous day, oppressed beyond relief, my own mortality was borne in upon me on sluggish tides of doom.

You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them." —Maya Angelou

I hate to lose something," then she bent her head, "even a dime, I wish I was dead. I can't explain it. No more to be said. 'Cept I hate to lose something.

I am grateful to be a woman. I must have done something great in another life.

Easy reading is damn hard writing." —

To her, each shot seemed to impel him forward, the reverse of her desire; and for him, the closer he got to her, the more she shot him.