Maya Angelou
American poet, memoirist and civil rights activist, 1928-2014
69 quotes.
Quotes by Maya Angelou
- All great achievements require time.
- Be certain that you do not die without having done something wonderful for humanity.
- Bitterness is a corrosive, terrible acid. It just eats you and makes you sick.
- Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can’t practice any other virtue consistently.
- Develop enough courage so that you can stand up for yourself and then stand up for somebody else.
- Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.
- Every storm runs out of rain.
- Forgiveness is a gift you give yourself.
- God puts rainbows in the clouds so that each of us – in the dreariest and most dreaded moments – can see a possibility of hope.
- Having courage does not mean that we are unafraid. Having courage and showing courage mean we face our fears. We are able to say, 'I have fallen, but I will get up.'
- History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, however, if faced with courage, need not be lived again.
- Hope and fear cannot occupy the same space. Invite one to stay.
- I am not competing with anyone other than myself. I want to be excellent at whatever I do.
- I believe that the most important single thing, beyond discipline and creativity is daring to dare.
- I can be changed by what happens to me, but I refuse to be reduced by it.
- I did get knocked down flat in front of the whole world, and I rose. I didn’t run away – I rose right where I’d been knocked down. And then that’s how you get to know yourself.
- I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better.
- I do my best because I’m counting on you counting on me.
- I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver.
- If someone shows you who they really are, believe them.
- If you are always trying to be normal you will never know how amazing you can be.
- If you cannot make a change, change the way you have been thinking.
- If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.
- If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded.
- If you're going to live, leave a legacy. Make a mark on the world that can't be erased.
- In order to win, we pay with energy and effort and discipline. If we lose, we pay in disappointment, discontent, and lack of fulfillment.
- It is important that we learn humility, which says there was someone else before me who paid for me. My responsibility is to prepare myself so that I can pay for someone else who is yet to come.
- It’s one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself, to forgive. Forgive everybody.
- 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.
- Love costs all we are and will ever be. Yet it is only love which sets us free.
- 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.
- 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.
- My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive.
- No matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on and it will be better tomorrow.
- Nothing can dim the light that shines from within
- Nothing will work unless you do.
- Seek patience and passion in equal amounts. Patience alone will not build the temple. Passion alone will destroy its walls.
- Stand up straight and realize who you are, that you tower over your circumstances. You are a child of God. Stand up straight.
- Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.
- Surviving is important. Thriving is elegant.