American poet (1928-2014)
I believe that each of us comes from the creator trailing wisps of glory.
MAYA ANGELOU
interview, Academy of Achievement
Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.
MAYA ANGELOU
"Passports to Understanding"
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
The need for change bulldozed a road down the center of my mind.
MAYA ANGELOU
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
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!
History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.
MAYA ANGELOU
On the Pulse of the Morning
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
I've learned that making a living is not the same thing as making a life.
MAYA ANGELOU
Facebook post, Mar. 3, 2013
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
A friend may be waiting behind a stranger's face.
MAYA ANGELOU
Letter to My Daughter
Nothing will work unless you do.
MAYA ANGELOU
Facebook post, Jan. 2, 2014
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
I think a hero is any person really intent on making this a better place for all people.
MAYA ANGELOU
attributed, pinterest
I have a certain way of being in this world, and I shall not, I shall not be moved.
MAYA ANGELOU
Phenomenal Woman
Never whine. Whining lets a brute know that a victim is in the neighborhood.
MAYA ANGELOU
Letter to My Daughter
The needs of a society determine its ethics.
MAYA ANGELOU
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Talent is like electricity. We don't understand electricity. We use it.
MAYA ANGELOU
attributed, Black Women Writers at Work
It was wonderful to receive from my President, the Freedom Award and to know that I am a member of the group most recently bought and sold with everybody's agreement, and the people who longed for freedom. When I accepted that award, I thought of all the people who had come from all over the world to find freedom in the United States. I accepted the award for African Americans, every slave who got off every boat, every European, and every Asian who came here searching for freedom.
MAYA ANGELOU
interview, Beautifully Said Magazine, Jul. 2012
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"