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Maya Angelou

Other
1
2
Each of us has the right and the responsibility to assess the roads which lie ahead, and those over which we have traveled, and if the future road looms ominous or unpromising, and the roads back uninviting, then we need to gather our resolve and, carrying only the necessary baggage, step off that road into another direction. If the new choice is also unpalatable, without embarrassment, we must be ready to change that as well.
From Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Inspirational
Make every effort to change things you do not like. If you cannot make a change, change the way you have been thinking. You might find a new solution.
From Letter to My Daughter
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Inspirational
We, unaccustomed to courage
exiles from delight
live coiled in shells of loneliness
until love leaves its high holy temple
and comes into our sight
to liberate us into life.

Love arrives
and in its train come ecstasies
old memories of pleasure
ancient histories of pain.
Yet if we are bold,
love strikes away the chains of fear
from our souls.

We are weaned from our timidity
In the flush of love's light
we dare be brave
And suddenly we see
that love costs all we are
and will ever be.
Yet it is only love
which sets us free.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Life
Ah, Momma. I had never looked at death before, peered into its yawning chasm for the face of a beloved. For days my mind staggered out of balance. I reeled on a precipice of knowledge that even if I were rich enough to travel all over the world, I would never find Momma. If I were as good as God’s angels and as pure as the Mother of Christ, I could never have Momma’s rough slow hands pat my cheek or braid my hair.

Death to the young is more than that undiscovered country; despite its inevitability, it is a place having reality only in song or in other people's grief.
From Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death
I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
My mother's gifts of courage to me were both large and small. The latter are woven so subtly into the fabric of my psyche that I can hardly distinguish where she stops and I begin.
From Mom & Me & Mom
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.

(Popular misquote of "You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.")
From Letter to My Daughter
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Inspirational
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.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Inspirational
I sustain myself with the love of family.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Inspirational
I hope you always find a reason to smile.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Happiness
Wouldn't take nothing for my journey now.
From Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Life
Life is going to give you just what you put in it. Put your whole heart in everything you do, and pray, then you can wait.
From I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Inspirational
What you're supposed to do when you don't like a thing is change it. If you can't change it, change the way you think about it. Don't complain.
From Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Inspirational
The desire to reach for the stars is ambitious. The desire to reach hearts is wise.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Inspirational
People whose history and future were threatened each day by extinction considered that it was only by divine intervention that they were able to live at all. I find it interesting that the meanest life, the poorest existence, is attributed to God's will, but as human beings become more affluent, as their living standard and style begin to ascend the material scale, God descends the scale of responsibility at a commensurate speed.
From I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
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.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Life
That's what you want to do? Then nothing beats a trial but a failure. Give it everything you've got. I've told you many times, 'Cant do is like Dont Care.' Neither of them have a home.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Inspirational
Try to be a rainbow in someone else's cloud.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Motivational
I had given up some youth for knowledge, but my gain was more valuable than the loss
From I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Life
I find relief from the questions only when I concede that I am not obliged to know everything. I remind myself it is sufficient to know what I know, and that what I know, may not always be true.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death
If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Each person deserves a day away in which no problems are confronted, no solutions searched for.
From Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Inspirational
Can I do it? I'd rather not try and fail."

"That's stupid talk, Maya. Every try will not succeed. But if you're going to live, live at all, your business is trying. And if you fail once, so what? Old folks say, Every shuteye ain't sleep and every goodbye ain't gone. You fail, you get up and try again.
From The Heart of a Woman
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Success
I’m grateful for being here, for being able to think, for being able to see, for being able to taste, for appreciating love – for knowing that it exists in a world so rife with vulgarity, with brutality and violence, and yet love exists. I’m grateful to know that it exists.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Hope
Each of us has the right and the responsibility to assess the roads which lie ahead, and those over which we have traveled, and if the future road looms ominous or unpromising, and the roads back uninviting, then we need to gather our resolve and, carrying only the necessary baggage, step off that road into another direction. If the new choice is also unpalatable, without embarrassment, we must be ready to change that as well.
From Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Inspirational
Make every effort to change things you do not like. If you cannot make a change, change the way you have been thinking. You might find a new solution.
From Letter to My Daughter
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Inspirational
We, unaccustomed to courage
exiles from delight
live coiled in shells of loneliness
until love leaves its high holy temple
and comes into our sight
to liberate us into life.

Love arrives
and in its train come ecstasies
old memories of pleasure
ancient histories of pain.
Yet if we are bold,
love strikes away the chains of fear
from our souls.

We are weaned from our timidity
In the flush of love's light
we dare be brave
And suddenly we see
that love costs all we are
and will ever be.
Yet it is only love
which sets us free.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Life
Ah, Momma. I had never looked at death before, peered into its yawning chasm for the face of a beloved. For days my mind staggered out of balance. I reeled on a precipice of knowledge that even if I were rich enough to travel all over the world, I would never find Momma. If I were as good as God’s angels and as pure as the Mother of Christ, I could never have Momma’s rough slow hands pat my cheek or braid my hair.

Death to the young is more than that undiscovered country; despite its inevitability, it is a place having reality only in song or in other people's grief.
From Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death
I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
My mother's gifts of courage to me were both large and small. The latter are woven so subtly into the fabric of my psyche that I can hardly distinguish where she stops and I begin.
From Mom & Me & Mom
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.

(Popular misquote of "You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.")
From Letter to My Daughter
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Inspirational
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.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Inspirational
I sustain myself with the love of family.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Inspirational
I hope you always find a reason to smile.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Happiness
Wouldn't take nothing for my journey now.
From Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Life
Life is going to give you just what you put in it. Put your whole heart in everything you do, and pray, then you can wait.
From I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Inspirational
What you're supposed to do when you don't like a thing is change it. If you can't change it, change the way you think about it. Don't complain.
From Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Inspirational
The desire to reach for the stars is ambitious. The desire to reach hearts is wise.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Inspirational
People whose history and future were threatened each day by extinction considered that it was only by divine intervention that they were able to live at all. I find it interesting that the meanest life, the poorest existence, is attributed to God's will, but as human beings become more affluent, as their living standard and style begin to ascend the material scale, God descends the scale of responsibility at a commensurate speed.
From I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
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.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Life
That's what you want to do? Then nothing beats a trial but a failure. Give it everything you've got. I've told you many times, 'Cant do is like Dont Care.' Neither of them have a home.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Inspirational
Try to be a rainbow in someone else's cloud.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Motivational
I had given up some youth for knowledge, but my gain was more valuable than the loss
From I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Life
I find relief from the questions only when I concede that I am not obliged to know everything. I remind myself it is sufficient to know what I know, and that what I know, may not always be true.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death
If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Each person deserves a day away in which no problems are confronted, no solutions searched for.
From Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Inspirational
Can I do it? I'd rather not try and fail."

"That's stupid talk, Maya. Every try will not succeed. But if you're going to live, live at all, your business is trying. And if you fail once, so what? Old folks say, Every shuteye ain't sleep and every goodbye ain't gone. You fail, you get up and try again.
From The Heart of a Woman
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Success
I’m grateful for being here, for being able to think, for being able to see, for being able to taste, for appreciating love – for knowing that it exists in a world so rife with vulgarity, with brutality and violence, and yet love exists. I’m grateful to know that it exists.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Hope
Each of us has the right and the responsibility to assess the roads which lie ahead, and those over which we have traveled, and if the future road looms ominous or unpromising, and the roads back uninviting, then we need to gather our resolve and, carrying only the necessary baggage, step off that road into another direction. If the new choice is also unpalatable, without embarrassment, we must be ready to change that as well.
From Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Inspirational
Make every effort to change things you do not like. If you cannot make a change, change the way you have been thinking. You might find a new solution.
From Letter to My Daughter
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Inspirational
We, unaccustomed to courage
exiles from delight
live coiled in shells of loneliness
until love leaves its high holy temple
and comes into our sight
to liberate us into life.

Love arrives
and in its train come ecstasies
old memories of pleasure
ancient histories of pain.
Yet if we are bold,
love strikes away the chains of fear
from our souls.

We are weaned from our timidity
In the flush of love's light
we dare be brave
And suddenly we see
that love costs all we are
and will ever be.
Yet it is only love
which sets us free.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Life
Ah, Momma. I had never looked at death before, peered into its yawning chasm for the face of a beloved. For days my mind staggered out of balance. I reeled on a precipice of knowledge that even if I were rich enough to travel all over the world, I would never find Momma. If I were as good as God’s angels and as pure as the Mother of Christ, I could never have Momma’s rough slow hands pat my cheek or braid my hair.

Death to the young is more than that undiscovered country; despite its inevitability, it is a place having reality only in song or in other people's grief.
From Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death
I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
My mother's gifts of courage to me were both large and small. The latter are woven so subtly into the fabric of my psyche that I can hardly distinguish where she stops and I begin.
From Mom & Me & Mom
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.

(Popular misquote of "You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.")
From Letter to My Daughter
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Inspirational
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.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Inspirational
I sustain myself with the love of family.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Inspirational
I hope you always find a reason to smile.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Happiness
Wouldn't take nothing for my journey now.
From Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Life
Life is going to give you just what you put in it. Put your whole heart in everything you do, and pray, then you can wait.
From I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Inspirational
What you're supposed to do when you don't like a thing is change it. If you can't change it, change the way you think about it. Don't complain.
From Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Inspirational
The desire to reach for the stars is ambitious. The desire to reach hearts is wise.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Inspirational
People whose history and future were threatened each day by extinction considered that it was only by divine intervention that they were able to live at all. I find it interesting that the meanest life, the poorest existence, is attributed to God's will, but as human beings become more affluent, as their living standard and style begin to ascend the material scale, God descends the scale of responsibility at a commensurate speed.
From I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
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.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Life
That's what you want to do? Then nothing beats a trial but a failure. Give it everything you've got. I've told you many times, 'Cant do is like Dont Care.' Neither of them have a home.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Inspirational
Try to be a rainbow in someone else's cloud.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Motivational
I had given up some youth for knowledge, but my gain was more valuable than the loss
From I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Life
I find relief from the questions only when I concede that I am not obliged to know everything. I remind myself it is sufficient to know what I know, and that what I know, may not always be true.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death
If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Each person deserves a day away in which no problems are confronted, no solutions searched for.
From Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Inspirational
Can I do it? I'd rather not try and fail."

"That's stupid talk, Maya. Every try will not succeed. But if you're going to live, live at all, your business is trying. And if you fail once, so what? Old folks say, Every shuteye ain't sleep and every goodbye ain't gone. You fail, you get up and try again.
From The Heart of a Woman
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Success
I’m grateful for being here, for being able to think, for being able to see, for being able to taste, for appreciating love – for knowing that it exists in a world so rife with vulgarity, with brutality and violence, and yet love exists. I’m grateful to know that it exists.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Hope
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