Maya Angelou Quotes
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Out of the huts of history's shame I rise Up from a past that's rooted in pain I rise I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide, Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
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There is nothing so pitiful as a young cynic because he has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing.
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It's still scary every time I go back to the past. Each morning, my heart catches. When I get there, I remember how the light was, where the draft was coming from, what odors were in the air. When I write, I get all the weeping out.
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I like to speak on matters which matter to human beings, and almost everything matters to human beings.
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At one time in my life, from the time I was seven until I was about 13, I didn't speak. I only spoke to my brother. The reason I didn't speak: I had been molested, and I told the name of the molester to my brother who told it to the family.
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It is a no-fail, incontrovertible reality: If you get, give. If you learn, teach. You can't do anything with that except do it.
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My life has been long, and believing that life loves the liver of it, I have dared to try many things, sometimes trembling, but daring still.
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It is possible and imperative that we discover a brave and startling truth.
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The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.
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You were a precious pearl How I loved to see you shine, You were the perfect girl. And you were mine. For a time. For a time. Just for a time.
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If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude.
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I read the Bible to myself; I'll take any translation, any edition, and read it aloud, just to hear the language, hear the rhythm, and remind myself how beautiful English is.
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You can't forgive without loving. And I don't mean sentimentality. I don't mean mush. I mean having enough courage to stand up and say, 'I forgive. I'm finished with it.'
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The most important thing I can tell you about aging is this: If you really feel that you want to have an off-the-shoulder blouse and some big beads and thong sandals and a dirndl skirt and a magnolia in your hair, do it. Even if you're wrinkled.
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I'm always disappointed when people don't live up to their potential. I know that a number of people look down on themselves and consequently on everybody who looks like them. But that, too, can change.
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I had given up some youth for knowledge, but my gain was more valuable than the loss.
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I know that I've been guided by God. I am obedient.
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We can learn to see each other and see ourselves in each other and recognize that human beings are more alike than we are unalike.
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I know that one of the great arts that the writer develops is the art of saying, 'No. No, I'm finished. Bye.' And leaving it alone. I will not write it into the ground. I will not write the life out of it. I won't do that.
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Bitterness is cancer - it eats upon the host. It doesn't do anything to the object of its displeasure.
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I'm convinced of this: Good done anywhere is good done everywhere. For a change, start by speaking to people rather than walking by them like they're stones that don't matter. As long as you're breathing, it's never too late to do some good.
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You have to develop ways so that you can take up for yourself, and then you take up for someone else. And so sooner or later, you have enough courage to really stand up for the human race and say, 'I'm a representative.'
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I'm interested in women's health because I'm a woman. I'd be a darn fool not to be on my own side.
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We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.