American poet (1928-2014)
I realized that I didn't get here by myself. I am a child of God and that's a blessing and because I have the blessing of God and the knowledge, I have no modesty because it is a learned adaptation. People are just fooling themselves in trying to fool other people when they say, "Oh me! Oh! I'm modest, I can't do this!" I have no modesty, I have humility. Humility comes from inside out and it says, "Someone was here before me and someone has already paid for me." I have a responsibility to pay for someone else who is yet to come, there is no room in there for ego! I am grateful to God. I am grateful to all my people who have helped me and all the ways they've helped me, the teachers, preachers, rabbis, and priests. Everyone that has helped me, I am grateful and I try to help someone else as often as I can.
MAYA ANGELOU
interview, Beautifully Said Magazine, Jul. 2012
We, unaccustomed to courage
exiles from delight
live coiled in shells of loneliness
until love leaves its high holy temple
and comes into our sight
to liberate us into life.
MAYA ANGELOU
A Brave and Startling Truth
Hoping for the best, prepared for the worst, and unsurprised by anything in between.
MAYA ANGELOU
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Nothing will work unless you do.
MAYA ANGELOU
Facebook post, Jan. 2, 2014
There is nothing so pitiful as a young cynic because he has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing.
MAYA ANGELOU
attributed, The Truth in Words
Never whine. Whining lets a brute know that a victim is in the neighborhood.
MAYA ANGELOU
Letter to My Daughter
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
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
Listen to yourself and in that quietude you might hear the voice of God.
MAYA ANGELOU
Facebook post, May 23, 2014
Out of the huts of history's shame I rise.
MAYA ANGELOU
Phenomenal Woman
To be left alone on the tightrope of youthful unknowing is to experience the excruciating beauty of full freedom and the threat of eternal indecision.
MAYA ANGELOU
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
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
Take a month
and show some kindness
for the folks
who thought that blindness
was an illness that
affected eyes alone.
MAYA ANGELOU
"Take Time Out"
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
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!
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"
I think a hero is any person really intent on making this a better place for all people.
MAYA ANGELOU
attributed, pinterest
I've had people explain to me what one of my poems meant, and I've been surprised that it means that to them. If a person can use a poem of mine to interpret her life or his life, good. I can't control that. Nor would I want to.
MAYA ANGELOU
Facebook post, Oct. 4, 2012
Talent is like electricity. We don't understand electricity. We use it.
MAYA ANGELOU
attributed, Black Women Writers at Work
Be certain that you do not die without having done something wonderful for humanity.
MAYA ANGELOU
Letter to My Daughter