Maya Angelou Quotes
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Timidity makes a person modest. It makes him or her say, 'I'm not worthy of being written up in the record of deeds in heaven or on earth.' Timidity keeps people from their good. They are afraid to say, 'Yes, I deserve it.'
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It's so tedious writing cookbooks or writing the recipes because I've never been much of a measurer. But to write a book, you have to measure everything.
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I have a feeling that I make a very good friend, and I'm a good mother, and a good sister, and a good citizen. I am involved in life itself - all of it. And I have a lot of energy and a lot of nerve.
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If we don't plant the right things, we will reap the wrong things. It goes without saying. And you don't have to be, you know, a brilliant biochemist and you don't have to have an IQ of 150. Just common sense tells you to be kind, ninny, fool. Be kind.
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I think I have had so much blessing - I've had my brother, who was brilliant - I think my family came closest to making a genius when they made my brother - Bailey was just all of that. He loved me.
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I would be stupid not to be on my own side. But I'm a human being, too. And I'm on the side of human beings, rather than on the side of crocodiles.
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I admire people who dare to take the language, English, and understand it and understand the melody.
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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.
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Glory falls around us as we sob a dirge of desolation on the Cross and hatred is the ballast of the rock
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The love of the family, the love of one person can heal. It heals the scars left by a larger society. A massive, powerful society.
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I know some people might think it odd - unworthy even - for me to have written a cookbook, but I make no apologies. The U.S. poet laureate Billy Collins thought I had demeaned myself by writing poetry for Hallmark Cards, but I am the people's poet so I write for the people.
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I got my own back.
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I did work in a strip club, but I didn't strip. I danced, and I became very popular.
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In all my work, in the movies I write, the lyrics, the poetry, the prose, the essays, I am saying that we may encounter many defeats - maybe it's imperative that we encounter the defeats - but we are much stronger than we appear to be and maybe much better than we allow ourselves to be. Human beings are more alike than unalike.
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Don't get older just to get wiser. If you get older, you will be wiser, I believe that - if you dare. But get older because it's fun!
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I've conducted the Boston Pops! Imagine that! Me! Maya Angelou! I've sang and danced at La Scala!
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Most plain girls are virtuous because of the scarcity of opportunity to be otherwise.
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I was very blessed to have family and friends, but particularly family, who told me I was not only all right, I was just right, so I believe that my brain is a good one, and it's lasting me very well.
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Whatever you want to do, if you want to be great at it, you have to love it and be able to make sacrifices for it.
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You may write me down in history with your bitter, twisted lines. You may trod me in the very dirt, but still, like dust, I'll rise.
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Petulant priests, greedy centurions, and one million incensed gestures stand between your love and me.
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I went to sleep last night and I arose with the dawn, I know that there are others who're still sleeping on, They've gone away, You've let me stay, I want to thank You.
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For a person who grew up in the '30s and '40s in the segregated South, with so many doors closed without explanation to me, libraries and books said, 'Here I am, read me.' Over time I have learned I am at my best around books.
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I write some country music. There's a song called 'I Hope You Dance.' Incredible. I was going to write that poem; somebody beat me to it.