Quotes by Maya Angelou
There is no agony like bearing an untold story inside of you.
We really are 15 countries, and it's really remarkable that each of us thinks we represent the real America. The Midwesterner in Kansas, the black American in Durham -- both are certain they are the real American.
Some of us are timid. We think we have something to lose so we don't try for that next hill.
I've learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision.
The caged bird sings with a fearful trill...
In order to be profoundly dishonest, a person must have one of two qualities either he is unscrupulously ambitious, or he is unswervingly egocentric.
Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.
What we humans are is really a remarkable thing. How can you doubt that we will survive and mature? There may be a lot of wisdom in the old statement about looking on the world lovingly. If we can, perhaps the world will have time to resolve itself
To describe my mother would be to write about a hurricane in its perfect power.
I answer the heroic question Death where is thy sting? It is here in my heart and mind and memories
Without courage you cannot practice any of the other virtues.
A woman who is convinced that she deserves to accept only the best challenges herself to give the best. Then she is living phenomenally.
When you learn, teach. When you get, give.
Lift up your eyes upon. This day breaking for you. Give birth again. To the dream.
You may encounter defeats, but you must not be defeated.
The need for change bulldozed a road down the center of my mind.
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
See, you don't have to think about doing the right thing if you're for the right thing then you'll do it without thinking.
You will face many defeats in your life, but never let yourself be defeated.
All of childhood's unanswered questions must finally be passed back to the town and answered there. Heroes and bogey men, values and dislikes, are first encountered and labeled in that early environment. In later years they change faces, places and maybe races, tactics, intensities and goals, but beneath those penetrable masks they wear forever the stocking-capped faces of childhood.
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.
I find it interesting that the meanest life, the poorest existence, is attributed to God's will, but as human beings become more affluent, as their living standard and style begin to ascend the material scale, God descends the scale of responsibility at a commensurate speed.
Pretty women wonder where my secret lies. I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size But when I start to tell them, They think I'm telling lies. I say, It's in the reach of my arms The span of my hips, The stride of my step, The curl of my lips. I'm a woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, That's me. I walk into a room Just as cool as you please, And to a man, The fellows stand or Fall down on their knees. Then they swarm around me, A hive of honey bees. I say, It's the fire in my eyes, And the flash of my teeth, The swing in my waist, And the joy in my feet. I'm a woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, That's me. Men themselves have wondered What they see in me. They try so much But they can't touch My inner mystery. When I try to show them They say they still can't see. I say, It's in the arch of my back, The sun of my smile, The ride of my breasts, The grace of my style. I'm a woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, That's me. Now you understand Just why my head's not bowed. I don't shout or jump about Or have to talk real loud. When you see me passing It ought to make you proud. I say, It's in the click of my heels, The bend of my hair, the palm of my hand, The need of my care, 'Cause I'm a woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, That's me.
A woman's heart should be so hidden in God that a man has to seek Him just to find her.
We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.
