Maya Angelou Quotes And Sayings

I Learned A Long Time Ago The Wisest Thing I Can Do Is Be On My Own Side, Be An Advocate For Myself And Others Like Me.

I Long For The Time When All Human History Is Taught As One History, Because It Really Is.

I Know That I've Been Guided By God. I Am Obedient.

I Love Wisdom. And You Can Never Be Great At Anything Unless You Love It. Not Be In Love With It, But Love The Thing, Admire The Thing. And It Seems That If You Love The Thing, And You Don't Just Want To Possess It, It Will Find You.

To Take A Few Nouns, And A Few Pronouns, And Adverbs And Adjectives, And Put Them Together, Ball Them Up, And Throw Them Against The Wall To Make Them Bounce. That's What Norman Mailer Did. That's What James Baldwin Did, And Joan Didion Did, And That's What I Do - That's What I Mean To Do.

I Became The Kind Of Parent My Mother Was To Me.

I Think I Have Had So Much Blessing - I've Had My Brother, Who Was Brilliant - I Think My Family Came Closest To Making A Genius When They Made My Brother - Bailey Was Just All Of That. He Loved Me.

I Was A Dancer For Many Years. I Was A Premier Dancer With 'Porgy And Bess,' The Opera. And I Taught Dance Some, In Different Places.

Courage - You Develop Courage By Doing Small Things Like Just As If You Wouldn't Want To Pick Up A 100-pound Weight Without Preparing Yourself.

I Respect Myself And Insist Upon It From Everybody. And Because I Do It, I Then Respect Everybody, Too.

My Mission In Life Is Not Merely To Survive, But To Thrive; And To Do So With Some Passion, Some Compassion, Some Humor, And Some Style.

Somehow, We Have Come To The Erroneous Belief That We Are All But Flesh, Blood, And Bones, And That's All. So We Direct Our Values To Material Things.

In The Flush Of Love's Light, We Dare Be Brave. And Suddenly We See That Love Costs All We Are, And Will Ever Be. Yet It Is Only Love Which Sets Us Free.

It's Very Important To Know The Neighbor Next Door And The People Down The Street And The People In Another Race.

You Have To Develop Ways So That You Can Take Up For Yourself, And Then You Take Up For Someone Else. And So Sooner Or Later, You Have Enough Courage To Really Stand Up For The Human Race And Say, 'I'm A Representative.'

I'm Not A Writer Who Teaches. I'm A Teacher Who Writes.

I Want To Write So Well That A Person Is 30 Or 40 Pages In A Book Of Mine... Before She Realizes She's Reading.

I Like To Speak On Matters Which Matter To Human Beings, And Almost Everything Matters To Human Beings.

I Believe That Each Of Us Comes From The Creator Trailing Wisps Of Glory.

Fighting For One's Freedom, Struggling Towards Being Free, Is Like Struggling To Be A Poet Or A Good Christian Or A Good Jew Or A Good Muslim Or Good Zen Buddhist. You Work All Day Long And Achieve Some Kind Of Level Of Success By Nightfall, Go To Sleep And Wake Up The Next Morning With The Job Still To Be Done. So You Start All Over Again.

If One Is Lucky, A Solitary Fantasy Can Totally Transform One Million Realities.

Some Critics Will Write 'Maya Angelou Is A Natural Writer' - Which Is Right After Being A Natural Heart Surgeon.

I Believe That Every Person Is Born With Talent.

Any Book That Helps A Child To Form A Habit Of Reading, To Make Reading One Of His Deep And Continuing Needs, Is Good For Him.

There Is No Greater Agony Than Bearing An Untold Story Inside You.

I Have Found That Among Its Other Benefits, Giving Liberates The Soul Of The Giver.

I Do Like To Have Guns Around. I Don't Like To Carry Them. But I Like - If Somebody Is Going To Come Into My House And I Have Not Put Out The Welcome Mat, I Want To Stop Them.

Growing Up, I Decided, A Long Time Ago, I Wouldn't Accept Any Manmade Differences Between Human Beings, Differences Made At Somebody Else's Insistence Or Someone Else's Whim Or Convenience.

Those Of Us Who Submitted Or Surrendered Our Ideas And Dreams And Identities To The 'Leaders' Must Take Back Our Rights, Our Identities, Our Responsibilities.

The Idea Is To Write It So That People Hear It And It Slides Through The Brain And Goes Straight To The Heart.

Our Stories Come From Our Lives And From The Playwright's Pen, The Mind Of The Actor, The Roles We Create, The Artistry Of Life Itself And The Quest For Peace.

I Know For Sure That Loves Saves Me And That It Is Here To Save Us All.

You May Not Control All The Events That Happen To You, But You Can Decide Not To Be Reduced By Them.

I Admire People Who Dare To Take The Language, English, And Understand It And Understand The Melody.

The Poetry You Read Has Been Written For You, Each Of You - Black, White, Hispanic, Man, Woman, Gay, Straight.

It Is A No-fail, Incontrovertible Reality: If You Get, Give. If You Learn, Teach. You Can't Do Anything With That Except Do It.

Nothing Succeeds Like Success. Get A Little Success, And Then Just Get A Little More.

What Humility Does For One Is It Reminds Us That There Are People Before Me. I Have Already Been Paid For. And What I Need To Do Is Prepare Myself So That I Can Pay For Someone Else Who Has Yet To Come But Who May Be Here And Needs Me.

I'm Always Disappointed When People Don't Live Up To Their Potential. I Know That A Number Of People Look Down On Themselves And Consequently On Everybody Who Looks Like Them. But That, Too, Can Change.

I'm A Religious Woman. And I Feel I Have Responsibility. I Have No Modesty At All. I'm Even Afraid Of It - It's A Learned Affectation And It's Just Stuck On Me Like Decals. Now I Pray For Humility Because That Comes From Inside Out.

The First Decade Of The Twentieth Century Was Not A Great Time To Be Born Black And Poor And Female In St. Louis, Missouri, But Vivian Baxter Was Born Black And Poor, To Black And Poor Parents. Later She Would Grow Up And Be Called Beautiful. As A Grown Woman She Would Be Known As The Butter-colored Lady With The Blowback Hair.

I Know That One Of The Great Arts That The Writer Develops Is The Art Of Saying, 'No. No, I'm Finished. Bye.' And Leaving It Alone. I Will Not Write It Into The Ground. I Will Not Write The Life Out Of It. I Won't Do That.

If I Walked Into The Kitchen Without Washing My Hands As A Kid, I'd Hear A Loud 'A-hem!' From My Mother Or Grandmother. Now I Count On Other People To Do The Same.

Growing Up, My Grandmother Did Not Want Worldly Music In The House. Then When I Went Out To California, I Started Listening To Spanish Music, Mostly Mexican Music. But Were I In Egypt, I Would Listen To The Music Of The People, Or If I Was In Italy, I'd Listen To Italian Music.

I Keep A Hotel Room In My Town, Although I Have A Large House. And I Go There At About 5:30 In The Morning, And I Start Working. And I Don't Allow Anybody To Come In That Room. I Work On Yellow Pads And With Ballpoint Pens. I Keep A Bible, A Thesaurus, A Dictionary, And A Bottle Of Sherry. I Stay There Until Midday.

You May Write Me Down In History With Your Bitter, Twisted Lines. You May Trod Me In The Very Dirt, But Still, Like Dust, I'll Rise.

I Like To Have Guns Around. I Don't Like To Carry Them.

Whenever I'm Around Some Who Is Modest, I Think, 'Run Like Hell And All Of Fire.' You Don't Want Modesty, You Want Humility.

I Love The Song 'I Hope You Dance' By Lee Ann Womack. I Was Going To Write That Song, But Someone Beat Me To It.

When I Was 8 Years Old I Became A Mute And Was A Mute Until I Was 13, And I Thought Of My Whole Body As An Ear, So I Can Go Into A Crowd And Sit Still And Absorb All Sound. That Talent Or Ability Has Lasted And Served Me Until Today.