Maya Angelou Quotes

Maya Angelou was one of the great American voices of the past century. She was a well known award winning poet, actress, author, professor, memoirist and civil rights activist. She contribute to perception by the means of nearly every mode available together with three Grammy winning spoken word albums, seven autobiographies, poems and myriad speeches. Her legacy lives on through her inspiring and motivational quotes.

1. “I believe that each of us comes from the creator trailing wisps of glory.” - Maya Angelou
2. “All great achievements require time.” - Maya Angelou
3. “Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean.” - Maya Angelou
4. “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” - Maya Angelou
5. “You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.” - Maya Angelou
6. “If I am not good to myself, how can I expect anyone else to be good to me?” - Maya Angelou
7. “The need for change bulldozed a road down the center of my mind.” - Maya Angelou
8. “You alone are enough. You have nothing to prove to anybody.” - Maya Angelou
9. “We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.” - Maya Angelou
10. “A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.” - Maya Angelou
11. “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
12. “I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.” - Maya Angelou
13. “Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.” - Maya Angelou
14. “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
15. “If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.” - Maya Angelou
16. “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
17. “You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” - Maya Angelou
18. “I speak to the Black experience, but I am always talking about the human condition — about what we can endure, dream, fail at and survive.” - Maya Angelou
19. “If someone shows you who they really are, believe them.” - Maya Angelou
20. “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
21. “If you have only one smile in you give it to the people you love.” - Maya Angelou
22. “We can learn to see each other and see ourselves in each other and recognize that human beings are more alike than we are unalike.” - Maya Angelou
23. “Lift up your eyes upon / This day breaking for you. / Give birth again / To the dream.” - Maya Angelou
24. “Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.” - Maya Angelou
25. “Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.” - Maya Angelou
26. “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
27. “When you know better, you do better.” - Maya Angelou
28. “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
29. “When people show you who they are, believe them.” - Maya Angelou
30. “Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time.”
31. “It’s one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself, to forgive. Forgive everybody.” - Maya Angelou
32. “I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better.” - Maya Angelou
33. “Modesty is a learned affectation. It’s no good. Humility is great, because humility says, ‘There was someone before me. I’m following in somebody’s footsteps.’” - Maya Angelou
34. “Never make someone a priority when all you are to them is an option.” - Maya Angelou
35. “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
36. “Everything in the universe has a rhythm, everything dances.” - Maya Angelou
37. “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
38. “The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.”
39. “Timidity makes a person modest. It makes him or her say, ‘I’m not worthy of being written up in the record of deeds in heaven or on earth.’ Timidity keeps people from their good. They are afraid to say, ‘Yes, I deserve it.’” - Maya Angelou
40. “Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with deeper meaning.”
41. “When I look back, I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature. If I were a young person today, trying to gain a sense of myself in the world, I would do that again by reading, just as I did when I was young.” - Maya Angelou
42. “We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.” - Maya Angelou
43. “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 of you.” - Maya Angelou
44. “If you get, give. If you learn, teach.” - Maya Angelou
45. “I’ve learned that making a ‘living’ is not the same thing as ‘making a life’.” - Maya Angelou
46. “You are the sum total of everything you’ve ever seen, heard, eaten, smelled, been told, forgot-it’s all there. Everything influences each of us, and because of that I try to make sure that my experiences are positive.” - Maya Angelou
47. “No matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow.” - Maya Angelou
48. “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
49. “Most people don’t grow up. Most people age. They find parking spaces, honor their credit cards, get married, have children, and call that maturity. What that is, is aging.” - Maya Angelou
50. “You may shoot me with your words, You may cut me with your eyes, You may kill me with your hatefulness, But still, like air, I’ll rise.” - Maya Angelou
51. “First best is falling in love. Second best is being in love. Least best is falling out of love. But any of it is better than never having been in love.” - Maya Angelou
52. “The main thing in one’s own private world is to try to laugh as much as you cry.” - Maya Angelou
53. “I’ve learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you’ll miss them when they’re gone from your life.” - Maya Angelou
54. “Hold those things that tell your history and protect them. During slavery, who was able to read or write or keep anything? The ability to have somebody to tell your story to is so important. It says: ‘I was here. I may be sold tomorrow. But you know I was here.’” - Maya Angelou
55. “We spend precious hours fearing the inevitable. It would be wise to use that time adoring our families, cherishing our friends and living our lives.” - Maya Angelou
56. “If more Africans had eaten missionaries, the continent would be in better shape.”
57. “We need much less than we think we need.” - Maya Angelou
58. “When I am writing, I am trying to find out who I am, who we are, what we’re capable of, how we feel, how we lose and stand up, and go on from darkness into darkness. I’m trying for that. But I’m also trying for the language. I’m trying to see how it can really sound.” - Maya Angelou
59. “I don’t trust anyone who doesn’t laugh.” - Maya Angelou
60. “All great artists draw from the same resource: the human heart, which tells that we are all more alike than we are unalike.”
61. “Hate, it has caused a lot of problems in the world, but has not solved one yet.” - Maya Angelou
62. “If you are always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be.” - Maya Angelou
63. “I’ve learned that I still have a lot to learn.” - Maya Angelou
64. “Nothing can dim the light which shines from within.” - Maya Angelou
65. “Love is like a virus. It can happen to anybody at any time.” - Maya Angelou
66. “My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy. That some people, unable to go to school, were more educated and more intelligent than college professors.” - Maya Angelou
67. “Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.” - Maya Angelou
68. “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
69. “Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible.” - Maya Angelou
70. “The loss of young first love is so painful that it borders on the ludicrous.” - Maya Angelou

Above are few of the popular quotes by Maya Angelou that showcases her legacy to the world. If you have more of her quotes do feel free to share in the comments section.