American poet (1928-2014)
The Holy Spirit upon my left leads my feet without ceasing into the camp of the righteous and into the tents of the free.
MAYA ANGELOU
"Our Grandmothers"
I've learned that even when I have pains, I don't have to be one.
MAYA ANGELOU
Facebook post, Jun. 6, 2013
Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with shades of deeper meaning.
MAYA ANGELOU
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Every experience shapes your writing, being stuck in a car on a lonely bridge, or dancing at a prom, being the it girl on the beach, all of those things influence your life, they influence how you write, and the topics you choose to write about.
MAYA ANGELOU
Facebook post, Oct. 13, 2012
I have a certain way of being in this world, and I shall not, I shall not be moved.
MAYA ANGELOU
Phenomenal Woman
To be left alone on the tightrope of youthful unknowing is to experience the excruciating beauty of full freedom and the threat of eternal indecision.
MAYA ANGELOU
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Love costs all we are
and will ever be.
Yet it is only love
which sets us free.
A Brave and Startling Truth.
MAYA ANGELOU
A Brave and Startling Truth
The needs of a society determine its ethics.
MAYA ANGELOU
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
I was raped when I was very young. I told my brother the name of the person who had done it. Within a few days the man was killed. In my child's mind--seven and a half years old--I thought my voice had killed him. So I stopped talking for five years.
MAYA ANGELOU
interview, The Paris Review, fall 1990
I long for the time when all the human history is taught as one history, because it really is one history.
MAYA ANGELOU
Facebook post, Feb. 28, 2013
Listen to yourself and in that quietude you might hear the voice of God.
MAYA ANGELOU
Facebook post, May 23, 2014
A friend may be waiting behind a stranger's face.
MAYA ANGELOU
Letter to My Daughter
I realized that I didn't get here by myself. I am a child of God and that's a blessing and because I have the blessing of God and the knowledge, I have no modesty because it is a learned adaptation. People are just fooling themselves in trying to fool other people when they say, "Oh me! Oh! I'm modest, I can't do this!" I have no modesty, I have humility. Humility comes from inside out and it says, "Someone was here before me and someone has already paid for me." I have a responsibility to pay for someone else who is yet to come, there is no room in there for ego! I am grateful to God. I am grateful to all my people who have helped me and all the ways they've helped me, the teachers, preachers, rabbis, and priests. Everyone that has helped me, I am grateful and I try to help someone else as often as I can.
MAYA ANGELOU
interview, Beautifully Said Magazine, Jul. 2012
Talent is like electricity. We don't understand electricity. We use it.
MAYA ANGELOU
attributed, Black Women Writers at Work
There is nothing so pitiful as a young cynic because he has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing.
MAYA ANGELOU
attributed, The Truth in Words
Nothing will work unless you do.
MAYA ANGELOU
Facebook post, Jan. 2, 2014
I, with millions of other Americans, have the same dream Martin Luther King Jr. had; when I wake up I wish some of the things I dreamt would be true. I wish that little black and white boys and girls would hold hands without being shocked at their nearness to each other and say in a natural way, "we have overcome."
MAYA ANGELOU
Facebook post, Aug. 28, 2013
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.
MAYA ANGELOU
Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now
History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.
MAYA ANGELOU
On the Pulse of the Morning
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.
MAYA ANGELOU
Facebook post, Jul. 5, 2011