Maya Angelou Quotes
Maya Angelou was born on the 4th of April, 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. She was an American poet, writer, memoirist, and civil rights activist. Maya Angelou is best known for her series of seven autobiographies, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences.
Maya Angelou was raped at the age of 8, by her mother’s boyfriend. When she revealed what happened, her uncles kicked the culprit to death. Frightened by the power of her own tongue, Angelou chose not to speak for the next five years.
She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and is credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning over 50 years. Maya Angelou received dozens of awards and more than 50 honorary degrees. She died May 28, 2014 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States.
In this article, you will find a collection of famous Maya Angelou quotes and sayings.
You may also like to check out: Maya Angelou Poems
80 Maya Angelou Quotes About Life, Love & Courage
If you are always trying to be normal you will never know how amazing you can be.― Maya Angelou Quote
“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.” ― Maya Angelou Quote
Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better. ― Maya Angelou Quote
You alone are enough. You have nothing to prove to anybody.― Maya Angelou Quote
Life is pure adventure, and the sooner we realize that, the quicker we will be able to treat life as art.― Maya Angelou Quote
You can’t really know where you are going until you know where you have been.― Maya Angelou Quote
When you know you are of worth — not asking it but knowing it — you walk into a room with a particular power.― Maya Angelou Quote
You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.― Maya Angelou Quote
I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life’s a bi*tch. You’ve got to go out and kick as*s.― Maya Angelou Quote
Be a rainbow in someone else’s cloud.― Maya Angelou Quote
Never make someone a priority when all you are to them is an option.― Maya Angelou Quote
Your belief and your work will speak for you.― Maya Angelou Quote
The honorary duty of a human being is to love.― Maya Angelou Quote
If someone shows you who they really are, believe them.― Maya Angelou Quote
I’ve learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow.― Maya Angelou Quote
Someone was hurt before you, wronged before you, hungry before you, frightened before you, beaten before you, humiliated before you, raped before you… yet, someone survived… You can do anything you choose to do.― Maya Angelou Quote
On what she feels about the world today: I feel very hopeful, very expectant. I’m looking forward to it.― Maya Angelou Quote
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.― Maya Angelou Quote
The best candy shop a child can be left alone in, is the library.― Maya Angelou Quote
If you have only one smile in you, give it to the people you love. Don’t be surly at home, then go out in the street and start grinning ‘Good morning’ at total strangers.― Maya Angelou Quote
Grace is like a lake of drinkable water right outside your door. But you stay inside and die of thirst.― Maya Angelou Quote
You can ask forgiveness of others, but in the end the real forgiveness is in one’s own self.― Maya Angelou Quote
I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way (s)he handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.― Maya Angelou Quote
I want all my senses engaged. Let me absorb the world’s variety and uniqueness.― Maya Angelou Quote
We need to not be in denial about what we’ve done, what we’ve come through. It will help us if we all do that.― Maya Angelou Quote
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.― Maya Angelou Quote
I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself.― Maya Angelou Quote
To develop courage you have to start developing courage as you do any other muscle. You have to start with small things and build it up.― Maya Angelou Quote
When you learn, teach, when you get, give.― Maya Angelou Quote
All great achievements require time.― Maya Angelou Quote
Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can’t practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.― Maya Angelou Quote
If one has courage, nothing can dim the light which shines from within.― Maya Angelou Quote
Each of us has that right, that possibility, to invent ourselves daily. If a person does not invent herself, she will be invented. So, to be bodacious enough to invent ourselves is wise.― Maya Angelou Quote
I was told many years ago by my grandmother who raised me: If somebody puts you on a road and you don’t feel comfortable on it and you look ahead and you don’t like the destination and you look behind and you don’t want to return to that place, step off the road.― Maya Angelou Quote
When you know you are of worth, you don’t have to raise your voice, you don’t have to become rude, you don’t have to become vulgar; you just are. And you are like the sky is, as the air is, the same way water is wet. It doesn’t have to protest.― Maya Angelou Quote
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.― Maya Angelou Quote
When we give cheerfully and accept gratefully, everyone is blessed.― Maya Angelou Quote
We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.― Maya Angelou Quote
Develop enough courage so that you can stand up for yourself and then stand up for somebody else. ― Maya Angelou Quote
Nothing will work unless you do.― Maya Angelou Quote
“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” ― Maya Angelou Quote
Only equals can become friends.― Maya Angelou Quote
The desire to reach for the stars is ambitious. The desire to reach hearts is wise.― Maya Angelou Quote
I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver.― Maya Angelou Quote
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.― Maya Angelou Quote
You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead, pursue the things you love doing, and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off you.― Maya Angelou Quote
My work is to be honest. My work is to try to think clearly, then have the courage to make sure that what I say is the truth.― Maya Angelou Quote
Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.― Maya Angelou Quote
When you get give. When you learn teach.― Maya Angelou Quote
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.― Maya Angelou Quote
Determine to live life with flair and laughter.― Maya Angelou Quote
I believe that every person is born with talent.― Maya Angelou Quote
If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities.― Maya Angelou Quote
It’s very important to know the neighbor next door and the people down the street and the people in another race.― Maya Angelou Quote
I’m really saddened by the attempts to separate and polarize. This is a time when we have hungry people, people out of work, and people out of spirit. This is a time where we need to uplift, not to separate.― Maya Angelou Quote
The idea is to write it so that people hear it and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the heart.― Maya Angelou Quote
How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!― Maya Angelou Quote
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.’― Maya Angelou Quote
If you want what you’re saying heard, then take your time and say it so that the listener will actually hear it. You might save somebody’s life. Your own, first.― Maya Angelou Quote
A woman’s heart should be so hidden in God that a man has to seek Him just to find her.― Maya Angelou Quote
Forgive yourself for not knowing what you didn’t know before you learned it.― Maya Angelou Quote
Since time is the one immaterial object which we cannot influence, neither speed up nor slow down, add to nor diminish, it is an imponderably valuable gift.― Maya Angelou Quote
Listen to yourself and in that quietude you might hear the voice of God.― Maya Angelou Quote
I do not trust people who don’t love themselves and yet tell me, ‘I love you.’ There is an African saying which is: Be careful when a naked person offers you a shirt.― Maya Angelou Quote
I don’t trust anyone who doesn’t laugh.― Maya Angelou Quote
My great hope is to laugh as much as I cry; to get my work done and try to love somebody and have the courage to accept the love in return.― Maya Angelou Quote
You only are free when you realize you belong no place – you belong every place – no place at all. The price is high. The reward is great.― Maya Angelou Quote
You should be angry. You must not be bitter. Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. It doesn’t do anything to the object of its displeasure. So use that anger. You write it. You paint it. You dance it. You march it. You vote it. You do everything about it. You talk it. Never stop talking it.― Maya Angelou Quote
All men are prepared to accomplish the incredible if their ideals are threatened.― Maya Angelou Quote
The need for change bulldozed a road down the center of my mind.― Maya Angelou Quote
We need much less than we think we need.― Maya Angelou Quote
I can be changed by what happens to me, but I refuse to be reduced by it.― Maya Angelou Quote
I believe that the most important single thing, beyond discipline and creativity is daring to dare.― Maya Angelou Quote
Hate, it has caused a lot of problems in the world, but has not solved one yet.― Maya Angelou Quote
I not only have the right to stand up for myself, but I have the responsibility. I can’t ask somebody else to stand up for me if I won’t stand up for myself. And once you stand up for yourself, you’d be surprised that people say, “Can I be of help?”.― Maya Angelou Quote
Ask for what you want and be prepared to get it!― Maya Angelou Quote
If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.― Maya Angelou Quote
If I am not good to myself, how can I expect anyone else to be good to me?― Maya Angelou Quote
This is what I am learning, at 82 years old: the main thing is to be in love with the search for truth. ― Maya Angelou Quote
If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded. ― Maya Angelou Quote