Inspiring Quotes by Maya Angelou
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My wish for you is that you continue. Continue to be who and how you are, to astonish a mean world with your acts of kindness.

When I forgive other people, I let them go, I free them from my ignorance. And as soon as I do, I feel lighter, brighter and better.

I know why the caged bird sings.

Everybody is worth everything.

Determine to live life with flair and laughter.

I believe that the most important single thing, beyond discipline and creativity is daring to dare.

My great blessing is my son, but I have daughters. I have white ones and Black ones and fat ones and thin ones and pretty ones and plain. I have gay ones and straight. I have daughters. I have Asian ones, I have Jewish ones, I have Muslim ones.

The children to whom we read simple stories may or may not show gratitude, but each boon we give strengthens the pillars of the world.

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

Only equals can become friends.

I do my best because I'm counting on you counting on me.

Nothing can dim the light that shines from within.

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.

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.

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

This is a wonderful day, I have never seen this one before.

Be certain that you do not die without having done something wonderful for humanity.

Never whine. Whining lets a brute know that a victim is in the neighborhood.

The best candy shop a child can be left alone in, is the library.

Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep continuing needs, is good for him.

Precious jewel, you glow, you shine, reflecting all the good things in the world. Just look at yourself.

You will face many defeats in your life, but never let yourself be defeated.

You don't need another person, place or thing to make you whole.

You alone are enough. You have nothing to prove to anyone.

When we give cheerfully and accept gratefully, everyone is blessed.

Forgiveness is the answer.

If you don't like something change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude about it. Don't complain.

You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.

Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time.

I don't trust people who don't love themselves and tell me, 'I love you.' ... There is an African saying which is: Be careful when a naked person offers you a shirt.

Never make someone a priority when all you are to them is an option.

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

It's very important to know the neighbor next door and the people down the street and the people in another race.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Modesty is a learned affectation. And as soon as life slams the modest person against the wall, that modesty drops.

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

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 became the kind of parent my mother was to me.

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.

Once you appreciate one of your blessings, one of your senses, your sense of hearing, then you begin to respect the sense of seeing and touching and tasting, you learn to respect all the senses.

The more you know of your history, the more liberated you are.

I think music is one of the hero sheroes of the African-American existence.

I don't think there's such a thing as autobiographical fiction. If I say it happened, it happened, even if only in my mind.

Children's talent to endure stems from their ignorance of alternatives.

It's so tedious writing cookbooks or writing the recipes because I've never been much of a measurer. But to write a book, you have to measure everything.

I would be stupid not to be on my own side. But I'm a human being, too. And I'm on the side of human beings, rather than on the side of crocodiles.

I think that that's the wisest thing -- to prevent illness before we try to cure something.

I am grateful to be a woman. I must have done something great in another life.

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.

I'm happy to be a writer -- of prose, poetry, every kind of writing. Every person in the world who isn't a recluse, hermit or mute uses words. I know of no other art form that we always use.

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 work very hard, and I play very hard. I'm grateful for life. And I live it -- I believe life loves the liver of it. I live it.

I read the Bible to myself; I'll take any translation, any edition, and read it aloud, just to hear the language, hear the rhythm, and remind myself how beautiful English is.

You can't forgive without loving. And I don't mean sentimentality. I don't mean mush. I mean having enough courage to stand up and say, 'I forgive. I'm finished with it.'

At fifteen life had taught me undeniably that surrender, in its place, was as honorable as resistance, especially if one had no choice.

It's still scary every time I go back to the past. Each morning, my heart catches. When I get there, I remember how the light was, where the draft was coming from, what odors were in the air. When I write, I get all the weeping out.

When I write, I tend to twist my hair. Something for my small mind to do, I guess.

If we accept being talked to any kind of a way, then we are telling ourselves we are not quite worth the best. And if we have the effrontery to talk to anybody with less than courtesy, we tell ourselves and the world we are not very intelligent.

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

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.

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.

If I'm the people's poet, then I ought to be in people's hands -- and, I hope, in their heart.

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

I like to speak on matters which matter to human beings, and almost everything matters to human beings.

The most important thing I can tell you about aging is this: If you really feel that you want to have an off-the-shoulder blouse and some big beads and thong sandals and a dirndl skirt and a magnolia in your hair, do it. Even if you're wrinkled.

Whatever you want to do, if you want to be great at it, you have to love it and be able to make sacrifices for it.

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

I respect myself and insist upon it from everybody. And because I do it, I then respect everybody, too.

Don't get older just to get wiser. If you get older, you will be wiser, I believe that -- if you dare. But get older because it's fun!

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.

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.

All of us knows, not what is expedient, not what is going to make us popular, not what the policy is, or the company policy -- but in truth each of us knows what is the right thing to do. And that's how I am guided.

And if a person is religious, I think it's good, it helps you a bit. But if you're not, at least you can have the sense that there is a condition inside you which looks at the stars with amazement and awe.

Everyone has at least one story, and each of us is funny if we admit it. You have to admit you're the funniest person you've ever heard of.

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.

If we don't plant the right things, we will reap the wrong things. It goes without saying. And you don't have to be, you know, a brilliant biochemist and you don't have to have an IQ of 150. Just common sense tells you to be kind, ninny, fool. Be kind.

I thank God I'm myself and for the life I'm given to live and for friends and lovers and beloveds, and I thank God for knowing that all those people have already paid for me.

Eating is so intimate. It's very sensual. When you invite someone to sit at your table and you want to cook for them, you're inviting a person into your life.

In so many ways, segregation shaped me, and education liberated me.

The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.

When I cook for my family on Christmas, I make feijoada, a South American dish of roasted and smoked meats like ham, pork, beef, lamb, and bacon -- all served with black beans and rice. It's festive but different.

I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels.

The sadness of the women's movement is that they don't allow the necessity of love. See, I don't personally trust any revolution where love is not allowed.

How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!

I refuse to allow any man-made differences to separate me from any other human beings.

I will not sit in a room with black people when the N word is used. I know it was meant to belittle a person, so I will not sit there and have that poison put on me. Now a black person can say, 'Oh, you know, I can use this word because I'm black.'

The best comfort food will always be greens, cornbread, and fried chicken.

One of the wonderful things about Oprah: She teaches you to keep on stepping.