These famous Maya Angelou quotes on Love, Life, Woman will teach a way to enjoy life despite the challenges.
Maya Angelou born with the name of Marguerite Annie Johnson was born on April 4, 1928, was an American poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist. She was one of the most celebrated poets and authors of America. She has received dozens of awards, over 50 honorary degrees for being an inspirational figure of America.
In 1993, Maya Angelou was invited at Bill Clinton’s inauguration to recite her poem “On the Pulse of Morning”. That makes her the first poet in the history since 1961 to deliver an inaugural recitation. Her hard work was rewarded in 2000 when she received the National Medal of Arts. In 2010, she was praised by one of the country’s highest honors, Presidential Medal of Freedom which was given by President Barack Obama.
Maya Angelou has lived a long and storied life. First of her seven autobiographies, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969) was one of the most popular of her work. Those 7 autobiographies focus on her childhood and adult experiences. She has written several books in the queue. She was not only an author but was a memoirist, essayist, poet, journalist, historian, songwriter, dancer, stage and screen producer, director, performer, and singer.
Maya Angelou’s life is the symbol of confidence, contribution, and perseverance. We lost a powerful soul on May 28, 2014. She has left so many wise thoughts and lessons for her to learn which we will cherish and always be thankful for.
Here we are sharing a collection of Maya Angelou Quotes on love, life, change, education, freedom, success, courage, friendship to celebrate the life of a legend.
Maya Angelou Quotes
“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
“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, Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now
“You can only become great at something you are willing to sacrifice for”
― Maya Angelou
“If I insist on being pessimistic, there is always tomorrow. Today I am blessed.”
― Maya Angelou
“I did then what I knew best, when I knew better, I did better.”
― Maya Angelou
“When someone shows you who they are believe them; the first time.”
― Maya Angelou
“We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.”
― Maya Angelou
“Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can’t practice any other virtue consistently.”
― Maya Angelou
“I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life’s a bitch. You’ve got to go out and kick ass.”
― maya angelou
“My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy. That some people, unable to go to school, were more intelligent and more educated than college professors.”
― Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou Quotes On Woman
“I don’t trust people who don’t love themselves and tell me, ‘I love you.’ … There is an African saying which is: Be careful when a naked person offers you a shirt.”
― Maya Angelou
“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
“Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.”
― Maya Angelou
“I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better.”
― Maya Angelou
“Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.”
― Maya Angelou
“Each time I write a book, every time I face that yellow pad, the challenge is so great. I have written eleven books, but each time I think, ‘Uh oh, they’re going to find out now. I’ve run a game on everybody and they’re going to find me out.”
― 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
“Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time.”
― Maya Angelou
“Never make someone a priority when all you are to them is an option.”
― Maya Angelou
“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
Maya Angelou Quotes On Love
“Can’t Do is like Don’t Care. Neither of them has a home.”
― Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
“You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.”
― Maya Angelou
“A woman’s heart should be so hidden in God that a man has to seek Him just to find her.”
― Maya Angelou
“You alone are enough. You have nothing to prove to anybody.”
― Maya Angelou
“The desire to reach for the stars is ambitious. The desire to reach hearts is wise.”
― Maya Angelou
“You dwell in whitened castles
with deep and poisoned moats
and cannot hear the curses
which fill your children’s throats.”
― Maya Angelou
“Ask for what you want and be prepared to get it!”
― Maya Angelou
“If I am not good to myself, how can I expect anyone else to be good to me?”
― Maya Angelou
“Stepping onto a brand-new path is difficult, but not more difficult than remaining in a situation, which is not nurturing to the whole woman.”
― Maya Angelou
“Hoping for the best, prepared for the worst, and unsurprised by anything in between.”
― Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Maya Angelou Quotes On Life
“Everything in the universe has a rhythm, everything dances. ”
― Maya Angelou
“No matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow.”
― 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
“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
“Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean.”
― Maya Angelou
“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
“I don’t trust anyone who doesn’t laugh.”
― Maya Angelou
“There’s a world of difference between truth and facts. Facts can obscure truth.”
― Maya Angelou
“Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.”
― Maya Angelou
“I’ve learned that even when I have pains, I don’t have to be one.”
― Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou Quotes On Change
“I’ve learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you’ll miss them when they’re gone from your life.”
― Maya Angelou
“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
“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
“Nothing can dim the light which shines from within.”
― Maya Angelou
“Life is pure adventure, and the sooner we realize that, the quicker we will be able to treat life as art.”
― Maya Angelou
“Hate, it has caused a lot of problems in the world, but has not solved one yet.”
― Maya Angelou
“We need much less than we think we need.”
― Maya Angelou
“When we give cheerfully and accept gratefully, everyone is blessed.”
― Maya Angelou
“Surviving is important. Thriving is elegant.”
― Maya Angelou
“Be present in all things and thankful for all things.”
― Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou Quotes On Education
“When we find someone who is brave, fun, intelligent, and loving, we have to thank the universe.”
― Maya Angelou
“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
“When you learn, teach, when you get, give.”
― Maya Angelou
“My life has been long, and believing that life loves the liver of it, I have dared to try many things, sometimes trembling, but daring, still.”
― Maya Angelou
“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
“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.”
― Maya Angelou
“The problem I have with haters is that they see my glory, but they don’t know my story…”
― Maya Angelou
“It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.”
― Maya Angelou
“I’ve learned that making a ‘living’ is not the same thing as ‘making a life’.”
― Maya Angelou
“I believe that the most important single thing, beyond discipline and creativity is daring to dare.”
― Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou Quotes On Success
“I’ve learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision.”
― Maya Angelou
“All great achievements require time.”
― Maya Angelou
“Nothing will work unless you do.”
― Maya Angelou
“To those who have given up on love: I say, “Trust life a little bit.”
― Maya Angelou
“In all the world, there is no heart for me like yours.
In all the world, there is no love for you like mine.”
― Maya Angelou
“If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded.”
― Maya Angelou
“Some people cannot see a good thing when it is right here, right now. Others can sense a good thing coming when it is days, months, or miles away.”
― maya angelou
“Love is like a virus. It can happen to anybody at any time.”
― Maya Angelou
“If you are always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be.”
― Maya Angelou
“A woman who is convinced that she deserves to accept only the best challenges herself to give the best. Then she is living phenomenally.”
― Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou Quotes On Courage
“Success is loving life and daring to live it.”
― Maya Angelou
“I’ve learned that I still have a lot to learn.”
― Maya Angelou
“While I know myself as a creation of God, I am also obligated to realize and remember that everyone else and everything else are also God’s creation.”
― Maya Angelou
“No one can take the place of a friend, no one.”
― Maya Angelou
“Talent is like electricity. We don’t understand electricity. We use it.”
― Maya Angelou
“When you wish someone joy, you wish them peace, love, prosperity, happiness… all the good things.”
― Maya Angelou
“You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies.
You may trod me in the very dirt, but still like dust, I’ll rise.”
― Maya Angelou
“If you’re not angry, you’re either a stone, or you’re too sick to be angry. 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, yes. 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
“I find relief from the questions only when I concede that I am not obliged to know everything. I remind myself it is sufficient to know what I know, and that what I know, may not always be true.”
― Maya Angelou
“While one may encounter many defeats, one must not be defeated.”
― Maya Angelou
Famous Quotes Of Maya Angelou
“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
“To those who are given much, much is expected.”
― Maya Angelou
“Love life. Engage in it. Give it all you’ve got. Love it with a passion because life truly does give back, many times over, what you put into it.”
― Maya Angelou
“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”
― Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
“The caged bird sings with a fearful trill,
of things unknown, but longed for still,
and his tune is heard on the distant hill,
for the caged bird sings of freedom.”
― Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
“Life is going to give you just what you put in it. Put your whole heart in everything you do, and pray, then you can wait.”
― Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
“Instead, pursue the things you love doing, and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off you.”
― Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
“I believe most plain girls are virtuous because of the scarcity of opportunity to be otherwise.”
― Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
“Anything that works against you can also work for you once you understand the Principle of Reverse.”
― Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
“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. Few, if any, survive their teens. Most surrender to the vague but murderous pressure of adult conformity. It becomes easier to die and avoid conflict than to maintain a constant battle with the superior forces of maturity.”
― Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Maya Angelou Quotes On Friendship
“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, And Still I Rise
“Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with shades of deeper meaning.”
― Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
“What you’re supposed to do when you don’t like a thing is change it. If you can’t change it, change the way you think about it. Don’t complain.”
― Maya Angelou, Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now
“Each of us has the right and the responsibility to assess the roads which lie ahead, and those over which we have traveled, and if the future road looms ominous or unpromising, and the roads back uninviting, then we need to gather our resolve and, carrying only the necessary baggage, step off that road into another direction. If the new choice is also unpalatable, without embarrassment, we must be ready to change that as well.”
― Maya Angelou, Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now
“Whining is not only graceless but can be dangerous. It can alert a brute that a victim is in the neighborhood.”
― Maya Angelou, Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now
“You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.”
― Maya Angelou, Letter to My Daughter
“Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.”
― Maya Angelou, Letter to My Daughter
“A friend may be waiting behind a stranger’s face.”
― Maya Angelou, Letter to My Daughter
“Let’s tell the truth to people. When people ask, ‘How are you?’ have the nerve sometimes to answer truthfully. You must know, however, that people will start avoiding you because, they, too, have knees that pain them and heads that hurt and they don’t want to know about yours. But think of it this way: If people avoid you, you will have more time to meditate and do fine research on a cure for whatever truly afflicts you.”
― Maya Angelou, Letter to My Daughter
“The human heart…tells us that we are more alike than we are unalike.”
― Maya Angelou, Letter to My Daughter
Did you like these Maya Angelou Quotes?
Even though Maya Angelou died in 2014 but she will always be in her words which she has left for us to learn and to get inspired. She will be remembered for the contribution she gave to the world and how she has inspired so many people.
She had overcome all of the difficulties in her life and teach us to shine bright like a star no matter what. We hope these Maya Angelou quotes will inspire you to overcome all your obstacles.
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