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Inspirational Quotations

by RightAttitudes.com

Inspirational Quotes by Maya Angelou (American Poet)

Inspirational Quotations by Maya Angelou (American Poet)

Maya Angelou (1928–2014,) born Marguerite Ann Johnson, was an African-American poet, author, singer, dancer, playwright, director, actor, professor, and civil rights activist. Her seven autobiographies, three books of essays, and several books of poetry chronicled the African American experience in literature.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1970,) Angelou’s first autobiography, told the story of her life up to the age of seventeen. Angelou’s account of her harrowing childhood in Arkansas, her segregation in southern schools, and the beginning of her relationship with literature brought her international recognition and acclaim.

In January 1993, at Bill Clinton’s first inauguration, Angelou became the second poet, the first African-American, and the first woman to recite a poem at a presidential inauguration. She wrote and recited the poem “On the Pulse of Morning” to emphasize unity, social change, and public responsibility.

Angelou inspired generations of fans with her enthusiasm to share the wisdom she acquired from the struggle of her childhood of abuse, the oppression in the American Deep South in the 1930s, and her early adult experiences.

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Maya Angelou

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Inspirational Quotes by Maya Angelou (American Poet)

If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities.
—Maya Angelou
Topics: Luck

The first time someone shows you who they are, believe them.
—Maya Angelou

You are the sum total of everything you’ve ever seen, heard, eaten, smelled, been told, forgot – it’s all there. Everything influences each of us, and because of that I try to make sure that my experiences are positive.
—Maya Angelou

How important it is to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes.
—Maya Angelou

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.
—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

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

The honorary duty of a human being is to love.
—Maya Angelou

The most called-upon prerequisite of a friend is an accessible ear.
—Maya Angelou
Topics: Friendship

Life loves the liver of it.
—Maya Angelou
Topics: Life and Living

If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded.
—Maya Angelou
Topics: Success & Failure, Accomplishment

I can be changed by what happens to me, but I refuse to be reduced by it.
—Maya Angelou

You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.
—Maya Angelou

Ask For What You Want And Be Prepared To Get It.
—Maya Angelou

Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.
—Maya Angelou

At fifteen life had taught me undeniably that surrender, in its place, was as honorable as resistance, especially if one had no choice.
—Maya Angelou
Topics: Despair

I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with a catchers mitt on both hands. You need to be able to throw something back.
—Maya Angelou
Topics: Helping

I believe that every person is born with talent.
—Maya Angelou
Topics: Belief, Talent

I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver.
—Maya Angelou
Topics: Giving

Live life as if it were created just for you.
—Maya Angelou
Topics: Living

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

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

You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.
—Maya Angelou

Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.
—Maya Angelou
Topics: Love

Therefore we pledge to bind ourselves to one another, to embrace our lowliest, to keep company with our loneliest, to educate our illiterate, to feed our starving, to clothe our ragged, to do all good things, knowing that we are more than keepers of our brothers and sisters. We are our brothers and sisters.
—Maya Angelou
Topics: Humanity

One must know not just how to accept a gift, but with what grace to share it.
—Maya Angelou
Topics: Gift

Jealousy in romance is like salt in food. A little can enhance the savor, but too much can spoil the pleasure and, under certain circumstances, can be life-threatening.
—Maya Angelou
Topics: Jealousy

It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.
—Maya Angelou
Topics: Parents

The needs of society determine its ethics.
—Maya Angelou

Of all the needs (there are none imaginary) a lonely child has, the one that must be satisfied, if there is going to be hope and a hope of wholeness, is the unshaken need for an unshakable God.
—Maya Angelou
Topics: Children

You can never go home again, but the truth is you can never leave home, so it’s all right.
—Maya Angelou
Topics: Home

There is a difference between being convinced and being stubborn. I’m not certain what the difference is, but I do know that if you butt your head against a stone wall long enough, at some point you realize the wall is stone and that your head is flesh and blood.
—Maya Angelou

There is a very fine line between loving life and being greedy for it.
—Maya Angelou
Topics: Lust For, Life

It’s one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself, to forgive. Forgive everybody.
—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
Topics: Hope

The quality of strength lined with tenderness is an unbeatable combination, as are intelligence and necessity when unblunted by formal education.
—Maya Angelou
Topics: Quality, Education, Character

I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself.
—Maya Angelou
Topics: Home

When you wish someone joy, you wish them peace, love, prosperity, happiness… all the good things.
—Maya Angelou

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

Something made greater by ourselves and in turn that makes us greater.
—Maya Angelou
Topics: Work

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