Maya Angelou

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take
our breath away.
– Maya Angelou

Success is loving life and daring to live it.
– Maya Angelou

If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. Don’t
complain.
– Maya Angelou

We need to haunt the halls of history and listen anew to the ancestors’ wisdom.
– Maya Angelou

Chilren’s talent to endure stems from their ignorance of alternatives.
– Maya Angelou

Timidity makes a person modest. It makes him or her say, “I’m not worthy of being written up
in the record of deeds in heaven or on earth.” Timidity keeps people from their good. They
are afraid to say, “Yes, I deserve it.”
– Maya Angelou

To describe my mother would be to write about a hurricane in its perfect power.
– Maya Angelou

Courage: the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can’t practice
any other virtue consistently.
– Maya Angelou

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

Surviving is important. Thriving is elegant.
– Maya Angelou

Let gratitude be the pillow upon which you kneel to say your nightly prayer. And let faith be
the bridge you build to overcome evil and welcome good.
– Maya Angelou

I’ve learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right
decision.
– Maya Angelou

The needs of society determine its ethics.
– Maya Angelou

I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life’s a bitch. You’ve got
to go out and kick ass.
– Maya Angelou

If I am not good to myself, how can I expect anyone else to be good to me?
– Maya Angelou

You alone are enough. You have nothing to prove to anybody.
– Maya Angelou

There is a very fine line between loving life and being greedy for it.
– Maya Angelou

The most called-upon prerequisite of a friend is an accessible ear.
– Maya Angelou

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

I’ve learned that even when I have pains, I don’t have to be one.
– Maya Angelou

Self-pity in its early stages is as snug as a feather mattress. Only when it hardens does it
become uncomfortable.
– Maya Angelou

I don’t trust anyone who doesn’t laugh.
– Maya Angelou

If men are God’s gift to women, then God must really love gag gifts.
– Maya Angelou

I’ve learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you’ll miss them when
they’re gone from your life.
– Maya Angelou

A friend may be waiting behind a stranger’s face.
– Maya Angelou

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

Hate, it has caused a lot of problems in the world, but has not solved one yet.
– Maya Angelou

History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not
be lived again.
– Maya Angelou

Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.
– Maya Angelou

Being a woman is hard work.
– Maya Angelou

Life is pure adventure and the sooner we realize that, the quicker we will be able to treat life
as art.
– Maya Angelou

The thorn from the bush one has planted, nourished and pruned, pricks more deeply and draws
more blood.
– Maya Angelou

If you have only one smile in you, give it to the people you love. Don’t be surly at home, then
go out in the street and start grinning “Good morning” at total strangers.
– Maya Angelou

Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.
– Maya Angelou

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.
– Maya Angelou

When you know better you do better.
– Maya Angelou

I’ve learned that “making a living” is not the same thing as “making a life”.
– Maya Angelou

A woman’s heart should be so hidden in God that a man has to seek Him just to find her.
– Maya Angelou

Human beings are more alike than unalike, and what is true anywhere is true everywhere,
yet I encourage travel to as many destinations as possible for the sake of education as
well as pleasure.
– Maya Angelou

While I know myself as a creation of God, I am also obligated to realize and remember that
everyone else and everything else are also God’s creation.
– Maya Angelou

You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.
– Maya Angelou

I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people
will never forget how you made them feel.
– Maya Angelou

Ask for what you want and be prepared to get it.
– Maya Angelou

One isn’t necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage,
we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can’t be kind, true, merciful,
generous, or honest.
– Maya Angelou

No matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better
tomorrow.
– Maya Angelou

Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive
at its destination full of hope.
– Maya Angelou

Nothing will work unless you do.
– Maya Angelou

Jealousy in romance is like salt in food. A little can enhance the savor, but too much can
spoil the pleasure and, under certain circumstances, can be life-threatening.
– Maya Angelou

Living a life is like constructing a building: if you start wrong, you’ll end wrong.
– Maya Angelou

A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.
– Maya Angelou

It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and
there is strength.
– Maya Angelou

Love life. Engage in it. Give it all you’ve got. Love it with a passion because life truly does
give back, many times over, what you put into it.
– Maya Angelou

If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded.
– Maya Angelou

I sustain myself with the love of family.
– Maya Angelou

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.
– Maya Angelou

Human beings are more alike than we are un-alike… Try to spread your giving of yourself to
people who may not even look like you. You belong to everybody, and everybody belongs to
you.
– Maya Angelou

We need much less than we think we need.
– Maya Angelou

Most people don’t grow up. Most people age. They find parking spaces, honor their credit
cards, get married, have children and call that maturity. What that is, is aging.
– Maya Angelou

I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.
– Maya Angelou

I’ve learned that every day you should reach out and touch someone. People love a warm
hug, or just a friendly pat on the back.
– Maya Angelou

Talent is like electricity. We don’t understand electricity. We use it.
– Maya Angelou

I am overwhelmed by the grace and persistence of my people.
– Maya Angelou

Nature has no mercy at all. Nature says, “I’m going to snow. If you have on a bikini and no
snowshoes, that’s tough. I am going to snow anyway.”
– Maya Angelou

When we find someone who is brave, fun, intelligent, and loving, we have to thank the
universe.
– Maya Angelou

Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean.
– Maya Angelou

Nothing can dim the light which shines from within.
– Maya Angelou

I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver.
– Maya Angelou

We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone
through to achieve that beauty.
– Maya Angelou

If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities.
– Maya Angelou

The desire to reach for the stars is ambitious. The desire to reach hearts is wise.
– Maya Angelou

No one can take the place of a friend, no one.
– Maya Angelou

I hope that I may always desire more than I can accomplish.
– Maya Angelou

If we lose love and self-respect for each other, this is how we finally die.
– Maya Angelou

The main thing in one’s own private world is to try to laugh as much as you cry.
– Maya Angelou

Education helps one case cease being intimidated by strange situations.
– Maya Angelou