Maya Angelou was a civil rights activist and poet from the United States. She was honored with scores of honorary degrees and dozens of honors. She was also a playwright, director, and producer for plays, films, and public television shows. Maya Angelou worked alongside Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X throughout the Civil Rights Movement. Angelou made her personal life public with the release of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Her writings have been viewed as a defense of Black culture, and she was regarded as a spokeswoman for Black people and women. So, here are some of the best Maya Angelou quotes for you to remember.
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Best Maya Angelou quotes about life
Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.
You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.
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.
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.
There’s a world of difference between truth and facts. Facts can obscure the truth.
There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.
Nothing will work unless you do.
Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told: ‘I’m with you kid. Let’s go.
If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.
Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future, and renders the present inaccessible.
We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.
Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it
If we lose love and self-respect for each other, this is how we finally die.
When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.
Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.
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.
The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.
The more you know of your history, the more liberated you are.
The truth is, no one of us can be free until everybody is free.
We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.
Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.
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.
Love is like a virus. It can happen to anybody at any time.
My life has been long and believing that life loves the liver of it, I have dared to try many things, sometimes trembling, but daring still.
Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean.
If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded.
A wise woman wishes to be no one’s enemy; a wise woman refuses to be anyone’s victim.
I think we all have empathy. We may not have enough courage to display it.
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.
All great achievements require time.
I respect myself and insist upon it from everybody. And because I do it, I then respect everybody, too.
I believe that every person is born with talent.
It’s one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself, to forgive. Forgive everybody.
If you have only one smile in you give it to the people you love.
I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver.
If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities.
Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with deeper meaning.
I am grateful to be a woman. I must have done something great in another life.
My life has been one great big joke, a dance that’s walked a song that speaks, I laugh so hard I almost choke when I think about myself.
Short Maya Angelou Quotes
The need for change bulldozed a road down the center of my mind.
All great artists draw from the same resource: the human heart, which tells us that we are all more alike than we are unalike.
Nothing succeeds like success. Get a little success, and then just get a little more.
The idea is to write it so that people hear it and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the heart.
Elimination of illiteracy is as serious an issue to our history as the abolition of slavery.
There is a very fine line between loving life and being greedy for it.
Effective action is always unjust.
I like to have guns around. I don’t like to carry them.
Achievement brings its own anticlimax.
Loving someone liberates the lover as well as the beloved. And that kind of love comes with age.
I had given up some youth for knowledge, but my gain was more valuable than the loss.
The love of the family, the love of one person can heal. It heals the scars left by a larger society. A massive, powerful society.
I know that I’ve been guided by God. I am obedient.
I’m not a writer who teaches. I’m a teacher who writes.
The loss of young first love is so painful that it borders on the ludicrous.
The only thing is, people have to develop courage. It is the most important of all the virtues. Because without courage, you can’t practice any other virtues consistently.
I believe that each of us comes from the Creator trailing wisps of glory.
To Know more about Maya Angelou read the article below:
5 Things to Know About Maya Angelou’s Complicated, Meaningful Life — Time
Life’s Work: An Interview with Maya Angelou — Harvard Business Review
