Maya Angelou quotes

“If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded.”

— Maya Angelou

“I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver.”

— Maya Angelou

“For Africa to me... is more than a glamorous fact. It is a historical truth. No man can know where he is going unless he knows exactly where he has been and exactly how he arrived at his present place.”

— Maya Angelou

“The sadness of the women's movement is that they don't allow the necessity of love. See, I don't personally trust any revolution where love is not allowed.”

— Maya Angelou

“There's a world of difference between truth and facts. Facts can obscure the truth.”

— Maya Angelou

“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

“The fact that the adult American Negro female emerges a formidable character is often met with amazement, distaste and even belligerance. It is seldom accepted as an inevitable outcome of the struggle won by survivors, and deserves respect if not enthusiastic acceptance.”

— Maya Angelou

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

— Maya Angelou

“Life loves the liver of it.”

— Maya Angelou

“I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself.”

— Maya Angelou

“I believe that every person is born with talent.”

— Maya Angelou

“Achievement brings its own anticlimax.”

— Maya Angelou

“There is a very fine line between loving life and being greedy for it.”

— 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

“The idea is to write it so that people hear it and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the heart.”

— Maya Angelou

“Most plain girls are virtuous because of the scarcity of opportunity to be otherwise.”

— Maya Angelou

“How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!”

— Maya Angelou

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

— Maya Angelou

“If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities.”

— Maya Angelou

“Self-pity in its early stages is as snug as a feather mattress. Only when it hardens does it become uncomfortable.”

— Maya Angelou

“I believe we are still so innocent. The species are still so innocent that a person who is apt to be murdered believes that the murderer, just before he puts the final wrench on his throat, will have enough compassion to give him one sweet cup of water.”

— Maya Angelou

“Effective action is always unjust.”

— Maya Angelou

“While the rest of the world has been improving technology, Ghana has been improving the quality of man's humanity to man.”

— Maya Angelou

“Some critics will write 'Maya Angelou is a natural writer' - which is right after being a natural heart surgeon.”

— Maya Angelou