Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes 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)

Education helps one cease being intimidated by strange situations.
—Maya Angelou
Topics: Peculiarity, Education, Oddity

I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way (s)he handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.
—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

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

If we lose love and self respect for each other, this is how we finally die.
—Maya Angelou
Topics: Self-respect

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 love of the family, the love of the person can heal. It heals the scars left by a larger society. A massive, powerful society.
—Maya Angelou

When a person shows you who they really are, believe them.
—Maya Angelou

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

Never make someone a priority when all you are to them is an option.
—Maya Angelou

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

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

Since time is the one immaterial object which we cannot influence—neither speed up nor slow down, add to nor diminish—it is an imponderably valuable gift. Each of us has a few minutes a day or a few hours a week which we could donate to an old folks home or a children’s hospital ward. The elderly whose pillows we plump or whose water pitchers we refill may or may not thank us for our gift, but the gift is upholding the foundation of the universe.
—Maya Angelou
Topics: Time

I know why the caged bird sings.
—Maya Angelou
Topics: Birds

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

We allow our ignorance to prevail upon us and make us think we can survive alone, alone in patches, alone in groups, alone in races, even alone in genders.
—Maya Angelou
Topics: Solitude, Isolation

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.
—Maya Angelou

Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean.
—Maya Angelou
Topics: Bitterness, Cancer, Anger

A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.
—Maya Angelou

Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told: “I’m with you kid. Let’s go.”
—Maya Angelou
Topics: Life and Living, Life

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.
—Maya Angelou
Topics: Humor, Living, Self-Discovery, Jokes

If you have only one smile in you, give it to the people you love. Don’t be surly at home, then go out in the street and start grinning “Good morning” at total strangers.
—Maya Angelou
Topics: Smile

Stepping onto a brand-new path is difficult, but not more difficult than remaining in a situation, which is not nurturing to the whole woman.
—Maya Angelou

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.
—Maya Angelou
Topics: Mentoring, Feelings, Role models, People

It is the belief in a power larger than myself and other than myself which allows me to venture into the unknown and even the unknowable.
—Maya Angelou
Topics: Belief

I answer the heroic question Death where is thy sting?. It is here in my heart and mind and memories.
—Maya Angelou
Topics: Death

Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.
—Maya Angelou
Topics: Entrepreneurs

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

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

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

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