MAYA ANGELOU QUOTES III

American poet (1928-2014)

I've learned that making a living is not the same thing as making a life.

MAYA ANGELOU

Facebook post, Mar. 3, 2013

Tags: life


Develop enough courage so that you can stand up for yourself and then stand up for somebody else.

MAYA ANGELOU

Facebook post, Sep. 17, 2012

Tags: courage


We, unaccustomed to courage
exiles from delight
live coiled in shells of loneliness
until love leaves its high holy temple
and comes into our sight
to liberate us into life.

MAYA ANGELOU

A Brave and Startling Truth

Tags: love


A friend may be waiting behind a stranger's face.

MAYA ANGELOU

Letter to My Daughter

Tags: friends


Out of the huts of history's shame I rise.

MAYA ANGELOU

Phenomenal Woman


Most people don't grow up. It's too damn difficult. What happens is most people get older. That's the truth of it. They honor their credit cards, they find parking spaces, they marry, they have the nerve to have children, but they don't grow up. Not really.

MAYA ANGELOU

interview, The Paris Review, fall 1990


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

MAYA ANGELOU

Letter to My Daughter


Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.

MAYA ANGELOU

attributed, Women Know Everything!

Tags: music


Talent is like electricity. We don't understand electricity. We use it.

MAYA ANGELOU

attributed, Black Women Writers at Work

Tags: talent


The needs of a society determine its ethics.

MAYA ANGELOU

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Tags: society


Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with shades of deeper meaning.

MAYA ANGELOU

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Tags: words


I was raped when I was very young. I told my brother the name of the person who had done it. Within a few days the man was killed. In my child's mind--seven and a half years old--I thought my voice had killed him. So I stopped talking for five years.

MAYA ANGELOU

interview, The Paris Review, fall 1990


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

MAYA ANGELOU

attributed, The Truth in Words

Tags: cynicism


Love costs all we are
and will ever be.
Yet it is only love
which sets us free.
A Brave and Startling Truth.

MAYA ANGELOU

A Brave and Startling Truth


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

MAYA ANGELOU

Letter to My Daughter


I think a hero is any person really intent on making this a better place for all people.

MAYA ANGELOU

attributed, pinterest

Tags: heroes


Nothing will work unless you do.

MAYA ANGELOU

Facebook post, Jan. 2, 2014

Tags: work


I have a certain way of being in this world, and I shall not, I shall not be moved.

MAYA ANGELOU

Phenomenal Woman


I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back.

MAYA ANGELOU

Facebook post, Mar. 4, 2013


The Holy Spirit upon my left leads my feet without ceasing into the camp of the righteous and into the tents of the free.

MAYA ANGELOU

"Our Grandmothers"