Quotes from Maya Angelou

They grow the fruit, But eat the rind

I can change by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.

A strong woman stands up for herself. A stronger woman stands up for everybody else.

Si siempre intentas ser normal, nunca descubrirás lo extraordinario que puedes llegar a ser.

She stands before the abortion clinic, confounded by the lack of choices. In the Welfare line, reduced to the pity of handouts. Ordained in the pulpit, shielded by the mysteries. In the operating room, husbanding life. In the choir loft, holding God in her throat. On lonely street corners, hawking her body. In the classroom, loving the children to understanding.

I got my own back.

But they talked, and from the side of the building where I waited for the ground to open up and swallow me, I heard the soft-voiced Mrs. Flowers and the textured voice of my grandmother merging and melting.

Does my sassiness upset you? Does my sexiness offend you?

Here, root yourselves beside me. I am that Tree planted by the River, Which will not be moved. I, the Rock, I, the River, I, the Tree, I am yours—your passages have been paid. Lift up your faces, you have a piercing need For this bright morning dawning for you. History, despite its wrenching pain, Cannot be unlived, but if faced With courage, need not be lived again.

It was a little like Switzerland in World War II. Shells were bursting all around me, souls were tortured and I was powerless in the confines of imposed neutrality - hopes were dying.

When religious ritual is not perfumed By the incense of burning flesh

I am a woman / Phenomenally / Phenomenal woman / That's me.

Use a minute feel some sorrow for the folks who think tomorrow is a place that they can call up on the phone. Take a month and show some kindness for the folks who thought that blindness was an illness that affected eyes alone.

But you'll turn your back As you often do Yet I am your sons And your daughters too.

We, this people, on this mote of matter In whose mouths abide cankerous words Which challenge out very existence Yet out of those same mouths Come songs of such exquisite sweetness

I keep on dying, Because I love to live.

Let me thank you That my selfishness, ignorance, and mockery Did not bring you to Discard me like a broken doll Which had lost its favor. I thank you that You still find something in me To cherish, to admire, and to love.

Somewhere in my fatalism I had expected to die, accidentally, and never have the chance to walk up the stairs in the auditorium and gracefully receive my hard-earned diploma. Out of God's merciful bosom I had won reprieve.

Life is going to give you just what you put in it. Put your whole heart in everything you do, and pray, then you can wait

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

If your always trying to be normal you will never know how amazing you can be.

La gente olvidará lo que dijiste y lo que hiciste, pero nunca olvidará cómo les hiciste sentir.

The Traveler Byways and bygone And lone nights long Sun rays and sea waves And star and stone Manless and friendless No cave my home This is my Torture My long nights, lone

He told me what I could do to myself, which was a sexual impossibility.