Maya Angelou
248 quotes
Biography
"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."
"Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope."
"If you have only one smile in you give it to the people you love."
"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."
"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."
"In the flush of love's light, we dare be brave. And suddenly we see that love costs all we are, and will ever be. Yet it is only love which sets us free."
"I write some country music. There's a song called 'I Hope You Dance.' Incredible. I was going to write that poem; somebody beat me to it."
"There is a very fine line between loving life and being greedy for it."
"Loving someone liberates the lover as well as the beloved. And that kind of love comes with age."
"When someone shows you who they are believe them; the first time."
"Whatever you want to do, if you want to be great at it, you have to love it and be able to make sacrifices for it."
"I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.(Popular misquote of "You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.")"
"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."
"We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty."
"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."
"I thank God I'm myself and for the life I'm given to live and for friends and lovers and beloveds, and I thank God for knowing that all those people have already paid for me."
"Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently."
"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."
"Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness."
"You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them."
"Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it."
"I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better."
"Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time."
"Fighting for one's freedom, struggling towards being free, is like struggling to be a poet or a good Christian or a good Jew or a good Muslim or good Zen Buddhist. You work all day long and achieve some kind of level of success by nightfall, go to sleep and wake up the next morning with the job still to be done. So you start all over again."
"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."