Quotes from Maya Angelou

There is nothing so pitiful as a young cynic because he has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing.

I have a feeling that I make a very good friend, and I'm a good mother, and a good sister, and a good citizen. I am involved in life itself - all of it. And I have a lot of energy and a lot of nerve.

I believe in living a poetic life, an art full life. Everything we do from the way we raise our children to the way we welcome our friends is part of a large canvas we are creating.

Live as though life was created for you.

I'm considered wise, and sometimes I see myself as knowing. Most of the time, I see myself as wanting to know. And I see myself as a very interested person. I've never been bored in my life.

I encourage you to live with life. Be courageous, adventurous. Give us a tomorrow, more than we deserve.

Early on, I was so impressed with Charles Dickens. I grew up in the South, in a little village in Arkansas, and the whites in my town were really mean, and rude. Dickens, I could tell, wouldn't be a man who would curse me out and talk to me rudely.

Until blacks and whites see each other as brother and sister, we will not have parity. It's very clear.

In a long meter hymn, a singer - they call it 'lays out a line.' And then the whole church joins in in repeating that line. And they form a wall of harmony so tight, you can't wedge a pin between it.

Black people comprehend the South. We understand its weight. It has rested on our backs... I knew that my heart would break if ever I put my foot down on that soil, moist, still, with old hurts. I had to face the fear/loathing at its source or it would consume me whole.

I'm just someone who likes cooking and for whom sharing food is a form of expression.

In all my work, I try to say - 'You may be given a load of sour lemons, why not try to make a dozen lemon meringue pies?'

Nothing can dim the light which shines from within.

In diversity there is beauty and there is strength.

I believe that every person is born with talent.

The quality of strength lined with tenderness is an unbeatable combination, as are intelligence and necessity when unblunted by formal education.

Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently.

We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.

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

Hoping for the best, prepared for the worst, and unsurprised by anything in between.

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.

We may act sophisticated and worldly but I believe we feel safest when we go inside ourselves and find home, a place where we belong and maybe the only place we really do.

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

Don't let the incidents which take place in life bring you low. And certainly don't whine. You can be brought low, that's OK, but don't be reduced by them. Just say, 'That's life.'