Maya Angelou Quotes

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Maya Angelou

Profession : Poet

Birth : April 4, 1928

The thing to do, it seems to me, is to prepare yourself so you can be a rainbow in somebody else's cloud. Somebody who may not look like you. May not call God the same name you call God - if they call God at all. I may not dance your dances or speak your language. But be a blessing to somebody. That's what I think.

Maya Angelou

My mom was a terrible parent of young children. And thank God - I thank God every time I think of it - I was sent to my paternal grandmother. Ah, but my mother was a great parent of a young adult.

Maya Angelou

I did work in a strip club, but I didn't strip. I danced, and I became very popular.

Maya Angelou

I work very hard, and I play very hard. I'm grateful for life. And I live it - I believe life loves the liver of it. I live it.

Maya Angelou

We are braver and wiser because they existed, those strong women and strong men... We are who we are because they were who they were. It's wise to know where you come from, who called your name.

Maya Angelou

I'm interested in women's health because I'm a woman. I'd be a darn fool not to be on my own side.

Maya Angelou

I love wisdom. And you can never be great at anything unless you love it. Not be in love with it, but love the thing, admire the thing. And it seems that if you love the thing, and you don't just want to possess it, it will find you.

Maya Angelou

If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded.

Maya Angelou

Nothing succeeds like success. Get a little success, and then just get a little more.

Maya Angelou

I had given up some youth for knowledge, but my gain was more valuable than the loss.

Maya Angelou

I'm convinced of this: Good done anywhere is good done everywhere. For a change, start by speaking to people rather than walking by them like they're stones that don't matter. As long as you're breathing, it's never too late to do some good.

Maya Angelou

What is a fear of living? It's being preeminently afraid of dying. It is not doing what you came here to do, out of timidity and spinelessness. The antidote is to take full responsibility for yourself - for the time you take up and the space you occupy. If you don't know what you're here to do, then just do some good.

Maya Angelou

Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him.

Maya Angelou

I'm not a writer who teaches. I'm a teacher who writes.

Maya Angelou

While the rest of the world has been improving technology, Ghana has been improving the quality of man's humanity to man.

Maya Angelou

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

Maya Angelou

Find a beautiful piece of art. If you fall in love with Van Gogh or Matisse or John Oliver Killens, or if you fall love with the music of Coltrane, the music of Aretha Franklin, or the music of Chopin - find some beautiful art and admire it, and realize that that was created by human beings just like you, no more human, no less.

Maya Angelou

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

If I'm the people's poet, then I ought to be in people's hands - and, I hope, in their heart.

Maya Angelou

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