Maya Angelou Quotes: These inspirational words from Maya Angelou are just what you need to hear in order to find a way to appreciate life in spite of the difficulties that it presents. These words of wisdom from the late, great poet Maya Angelou might serve as a thoughtful guide to help you find the good in everything.
Maya surmounted several obstacles on her path to becoming a successful novelist and recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, including but not limited to sexual assault, racism, poverty, and physical violence. We hope that the quotations by Maya Angelou that we’ve shared with you today have motivated you to appreciate the life you’ve been given and to triumph over any challenges that may lie ahead.
Keep in mind that you should also read our collection of quotations since they will expand your thoughts.
Best Maya Angelou Quotes About Life, Love, And Success
1. 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! – Maya Angelou
2. “I learned that to be charitable with gestures and words can bring enormous joy and repair injured feelings.” ― Maya Angelou
3. “Their faces shone with the delight of their souls.”― Maya Angelou
4. “Let nothing dim the light that shines from within.”― Maya Angelou
5. “I am grateful to have been loved and to be loved now and to be able to love.” – Maya Angelou
6. “Your reputation is the most important thing you’ll ever have. Not clothes, nor money, not the big cars you may drive. If your reputation is good, you can achieve anything you want in the world.”― Maya Angelou
7. “If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. Don’t complain.” – Maya Angelou
8. I refuse to allow any man-made differences to separate me from any other human beings. Maya Angelou
9. “If you have only one smile in you give it to the people you love.” – Maya Angelou
10. “I’ve had rainbows in my clouds.”― Maya Angelou
11. 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. – Maya Angelou
12. It is a no-fail, incontrovertible reality: If you get, give. If you learn, teach. You can’t do anything with that except do it. – Maya Angelou
13. “I’m here, and I do my best to be completely centered at the place I’m at, then I go forward to the next place.” – Maya Angelou
14. “Living well is an art which can be developed.”― Maya Angelou
15. “I created myself. I have taught myself so much.” – Maya Angelou
16. “Only the secure can bear the weight of a joke and only the very secure can join in the laughter.”― Maya Angelou
17. 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
18. “I have learned to accept my responsibility and to forgive myself first, then to apologies to anyone injured by my misreckoning.”― Maya Angelou
19. “I encourage courtesy. To accept nothing less than courtesy, and to give nothing less than courtesy.” – Maya Angelou
20. “Although I had no regrets, I told myself sadly that growing up was not the painless process one would have thought it to be.”― Maya Angelou
21. “It’s hard to make the prettiest clothes fit a miserable man.” ― Maya Angelou
22. “I’m happy…I laugh as much as I can and cry when I have to, without apology. I think that’s happy.”― Maya Angelou
23. “I think a hero is any person really intent on making this a better place for all people.” ― Maya Angelou
24. “The woman who truly intends to live a good life is already living phenomenally since intent is part of the achievement.”― Maya Angelou
25. “In diversity there is beauty and there is strength.”― Maya Angelou
26. “We need much less than we think we need.” – Maya Angelou
27. “Talent is like electricity. We don’t understand electricity. We use it.” ― Maya Angelou
28. “When I walk in, they may like me or dislike me, but everybody knows I’m here”― Maya Angelou
29. “The honorary duty of a human being is to love.” – Maya Angelou
30. “Just like moons and like suns, With the certainty of tides, Just like hopes springing high, Still I’ll rise.” – Maya Angelou
31. “If you don’t protect yourself, you look like a fool asking somebody else to protect you.”― Maya Angelou
32. “There is nothing quite so tragic as a young cynic, because it means the person has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing.”― Maya Angelou
33. “If growing up is painful for the Southern Black girl, being aware of her displacement is the rust on the razor that threatens the throat.”― Maya Angelou
34. “Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.” – Maya Angelou
35. In all my work, I try to say, ‘You may be given a load of sour lemons, why not try to make a dozen lemon meringue pies?’ – Maya Angelou
36. “Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean.” ― Maya Angelou
37. If you’re always trying to be normal you will never know how amazing you can be. – Maya Angelou
38. “The only way out of something is all the way through it.”― Maya Angelou
39. At I began to know who I was. It was like waking up to myself. – Maya Angelou
40. “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
41. “We must look past complexion and see community.” – Maya Angelou
42. “Faith is the evidence of the unseen.”― Maya Angelou
43. “I like to speak on matters which matter to human beings, and almost everything matters to human beings.” – Maya Angelou
44. “I note the obvious differences between each sort and type,
45. “If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.” – Maya Angelou
46. “You alone are enough. You have nothing to prove to anybody.” ― Maya Angelou
47. “I would like to be known as an intelligent woman, a courageous woman, a loving woman, a woman who teaches by being.” – Maya Angelou
48. “Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible…We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.”― Maya Angelou
49. I believe that every person is born with talent. – Maya Angelou
50. “There is no greater agony that bearing an untold story inside you.”― Maya Angelou
51. 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
52. There’s something which impels us to show our inner souls. The more courageous we are, the more we succeed in explaining what we know. – Maya Angelou
53. “You are very kind and very intelligent and those elements are not always found together.”― Maya Angelou
54. “I have respect for the past, but I’m a person of the moment.” – Maya Angelou
55. “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.” – Maya Angelou
56. “The dread of futility has been my life-long plague.”― Maya Angelou
57. “We must insist that the men and women who expect to lead us recognize the true desires of those who are being led.”― Maya Angelou
58. “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
59. My greatest blessing has been the birth of my son. My next greatest blessing has been my ability to turn people into children of mine. – Maya Angelou
60. “If you’re going to live, leave a legacy. Make a mark on the world that can’t be erased.” – Maya Angelou
61. “It is through the eyes of strangers that a parent can see their children as people.” ― Maya Angelou
62. “My life has been one great big joke, a dance that’s walked, a song that’s spoke, I laugh so hard I almost choke when I think about myself.” – Maya Angelou
63. “I’ve learned that every day you should reach out and touch someone. People love a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back.” – Maya Angelou
64. “Rise and be prepared to move on and ever on.”― Maya Angelou
65. “Take as much time as you need to make up your mind, but once it is made up, step out on your decision like it’s something you want.”― Maya Angelou
66. “I maintain an attitude of gratitude. If pessimism insists on occupying my thoughts, I remember there is always tomorrow. Today I am blessed.”― Maya Angelou
67. “Love is like a virus. It can happen to anybody at any time.” – Maya Angelou
68. “When you learn, teach. When you get, give.”― Maya Angelou
69. “One isn’t necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can’t be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.” – Maya Angelou
70. but we are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike.” ― Maya Angelou
71. “As a species, we were an abomination. All of us.”― Maya Angelou
72. Loving someone liberates the lover as well as the beloved. And that kind of love comes with age. – Maya Angelou
73. “All knowledge is spendable currency, depending on the market.”― Maya Angelou
74. “Develop enough courage so that you can stand up for yourself and then stand up for somebody else.” – Maya Angelou
75. “We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.” – Maya Angelou
76. “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.”‘ – Maya Angelou
77. “Nothing will work unless you do.” – Maya Angelou
78. “If you must look back, do so forgivingly. If you will look forward, do so prayerfully. But the wisest course would be to be present in the present gratefully.” – Maya Angelou
79. I know for sure that loves saves me and that it is here to save us all. – Maya Angelou
80. “If I am not good to myself, how can I expect anyone else to be good to me?” – Maya Angelou
81. Seek patience and passion in equal amounts. Patience alone will not build the temple. Passion alone will destroy its walls. – Maya Angelou
82. I love the song ‘I Hope You Dance’ by Lee Ann Womack. I was going to write that song, but someone beat me to it. – Maya Angelou
83. I am grateful to be a woman. I must have done something great in another life. – Maya Angelou
84. “Courage is the most important of all virtues, because without courage, you cannot practice any of the other virtues consistently.” ― Maya Angelou
85. “Take a day to heal from the lies you’ve told yourself and the ones that have been told to you.”― Maya Angelou
86. “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” ― Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou was a well-known novelist, prominent poet, dancer, actor, singer, and activist. She was born on April 4, 1928, and passed away on May 28, 2014. Maya is recognized for her series of seven autobiographies, which center on her early life as well as her experiences as an adult. She has been awarded more than fifty honorary degrees.
In 2010, she was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by former United States President Barack Obama, making her the recipient of one of the nation’s highest awards. Maya Angelou’s life exemplified qualities such as self-assurance, selflessness, and dogged determination. She imparted a wealth of knowledge over the course of her life that will be appreciated for a great many years to come.
Have You Enjoyed Reading These Quotes by Maya Angelou? Despite the fact that Maya Angelou passed away in 2014, her legacy is still going strong. Not only will people remember her for her poetry and her ability to tell stories, but also for her work as an educator, a civil activist, an actor, and a filmmaker.
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Here are some of our favorite Maya Angelou quotations! Her words are a blend of poetry and straightforward speech, and her teachings are universal, transcending both generations and racial boundaries. Quotes from Maya Angelou are available here, and they cover a wide range of topics, including life, love, happiness, bravery, family, friendship, education, and more. Enjoy!
