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.

When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time. People know themselves much better than you do. That's why it's important to stop expecting them to be something other than who they are

You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. Please remember that your difficulties do not define you. They simply strengthen your ability to overcome.

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

If you are always trying to be normal you will never know how amazing you can be.

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!

Each one of us has lived through some devastation, some loneliness, some weather superstorm or spiritual superstorm, when we look at each other we must say, I understand. I understand how you feel because I have been there myself. We must support each other and empathize with each other because each of us is more alike than we are unalike.

My wish for you is that you continue. Continue to be who and how you are, to astonish a mean world with your acts of kindness.

No sun outlasts its sunset, but will rise again and bring the dawn.

Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.

A Woman in harmony with her spirit is like a river flowing. She goes where she will without pretense and arrives at her destination prepared to be herself and only herself

Just do right. Right may not be expedient, it may not be profitable, but it will satisfy your soul. It brings you the kind of protection that bodyguards can’t give you. So try to live your life in a way that you will not regret years of useless virtue and inertia and timidity. Take up the battle. Take it up. It’s yours. This is your life. This is your world.

If you must look back, do so forgivingly. If you will look forward, do so prayerfully. But the wisest course would be to be present in the present gratefully.

We need Joy as we need air. We need Love as we need water. We need each other as we need the earth we share.

Open your eyes to the beauty around you, open your mind to the wonders of life, open your heart to those who love you, and always be true to yourself.

When you know you are of worth, you don't have to raise your voice, you don't have to become rude, you don't have to become vulgar; you just are. And you are like the sky is, as the air is, the same way water is wet. It doesn't have to protest.

If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude.

You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them. Try to be a rainbow in someone else's cloud. Do not complain. 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.

Hope and fear cannot occupy the same space. Invite one to stay.

Precious jewel, you glow, you shine, reflecting all the good things in the world. Just look at yourself.

Nothing can dim the light which shines from within.

Develop enough courage so that you can stand up for yourself and then stand up for somebody else.

We cannot change the past, but we can change our attitude toward it. Uproot guilt and plant forgiveness. Tear out arrogance and seed humility. Exchange love for hate - thereby, making the present comfortable and the future promising.

At the end of the day people won't remember what you said or did, they will remember how you made them feel.

What I try to do is write. I may write for two weeks ‘the cat sat on the mat, that is that, not a rat,’.... And it might be just the most boring and awful stuff. But I try. When I’m writing, I write. And then it’s as if the muse is convinced that I’m serious and says, ‘Okay. Okay. I’ll come.

I would like to be known as an intelligent woman, a courageous woman, a loving woman, a woman who teaches by being.

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.

Hate, it has caused a lot of problems in the world, but has not solved one yet.

You don't need another person, place or thing to make you whole. God already did that. Your job is to know it.

If you are going down a road and don't like what's in front of you, and look behind you and don't like what you see, get off the road. Create a new path!

Nothing will work unless you do.

Continue. Be loving and be strong. Be fierce and be kind. And don't give in and don't give up.'

When I say 'I am a Christian', I'm not shouting 'I'm saved'. I'm whispering 'I get lost'. That is why I chose this way.

Forgiveness. It's one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself, to forgive. Forgive everybody. You are relieved of carrying that burden of resentment. You really are lighter. You feel lighter. You just drop that.

When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.

We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.

Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud.

When you learn, teach, when you get, give.

Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.

If you're going to live, leave a legacy. Make a mark on the world that can't be erased.

This is a wonderful day, I have never seen this one before.

In diversity there is beauty and there is strength.

No matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow.

History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.

I think a hero is any person really intent on making this a better place for all people.

God puts rainbows in the clouds so that each of us - in the dreariest and most dreaded moments - can see a possibility of hope.

People will never forget how you made them feel.

There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.

I am not competing with anyone other than myself. I want to be excellent at whatever I do.

We all should know that diversity makes for a rich tapestry, and we must understand that all the threads of the tapestry are equal in value no matter what their color.