Maya Angelou Quotes

If it is true that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, isn't it also true a society is only as healthy as its sickest citizen and only as wealthy as its most deprived?

I've learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision.

In all my work, I try to say - 'You may be given a load of sour lemons, why not try to make a dozen lemon meringue pies?'

Take the blinders from your vision take the padding from your ears and confess you've heard me crying and admit you've seen my tears.

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.

Dare to let your dreams reach beyond you...

I love a Hebrew National hot dog with an ice-cold Corona - no lime. If the phone rings, I won't answer until I'm done.

Money and power can liberate only if they are used to do so. They can imprison and inhibit more finally than barred windows and iron chains.

In order to win, we pay with energy and effort and discipline. If we lose, we pay in disappointment, discontent, and lack of fulfillment.

Anger is like fire. It burns all clean.

Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told: 'I'm with you kid. Let's go.'

Strong women- precious jewels all- their humanness is evident in their accessibility. We are able to enter into the spirit of these women and rejoice in their warmth and courage.

Now, after years of observation and enough courage to admit what I have observed, I try to plant peace if I do not want discord; to plant loyalty and honesty if I want to avoid betrayal and lies.

It is sad but true that sometimes we need the tragedy to help us to see how human we are and how we are more alike than we are different.

Whining is not only graceless, but it can be dangerous. It can alert a brute that a victim is in the neighborhood.

I think we all have empathy. We may not have enough courage to display it.

Make every effort to change things you do not like. If you cannot make a change, change the way you have been thinking. You might find a new solution.

If we lose love and self respect for each other, this is how we finally die.

The most called-upon prerequisite of a friend is an accessible ear.

Love is many things. It is varied. One thing love is not, is unsure.

Success is loving life and daring to live it.

A mother's love liberates.

Don't hesitate to learn the most painful aspects of our history, understand it.

I know that you that you may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. If you accept that you have been defeated, you give power to the force that is trying to defeat you.

Had I not had my grandmother, who dared to be my rainbow in the clouds, I would have been just another sexually abused barefoot black girl on the roads of Arkansas.

Freedom is never free.

Original thinking migrates each day in search of nourishment.

Life loves the liver of it. You must live and life will be good to you.

The Holy Spirit upon my left leads my feet without ceasing into the camp of the righteous and into the tents of the free.

Without courage we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency.

In a magazine, one can get - from cover to cover - 15 to 20 different ideas about life and how to live it.

This is what I am learning, at 82 years old: the main thing is to be in love with the search for truth.

One must know not just how to accept a gift, but with what grace to share it.

Live life as if it were created just for you.

The plague of racism is insidious, entering into our minds as smoothly and quietly and invisibly as floating airborne microbes enter into our bodies to find lifelong purchase in our bloodstreams.

Effective action is always unjust.

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.

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.

The need for change bulldozed a road down the center of my mind.

I am overwhelmed by the grace and persistence of my people.

I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better.

There is nothing so pitiful as a young cynic because he has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing.

When women take care of their health they become their own best friend.

I am a very religious person, so it is the presence of God, the constant unwavering, unrelenting presence of God which continues to help me to keep a character which I am proud to show.

One isn't necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential.

You may not get what you paid for, but you will pay for what you get.

When I try to describe myself to God I say, 'Lord, remember me? Black? Female? Six-foot tall? The writer?' And I almost always get God's attention.

We spend precious hours fearing the inevitable. It would be wise to use that time adoring our families, cherishing our friends and living our lives.

I’ve got a magic charm That I keep up my sleeve, I can walk the ocean floor And never have to breathe.

A woman who is convinced that she deserves to accept only the best challenges herself to give the best. Then she is living phenomenally.