MAYA ANGELOU QUOTES III

American poet (1928-2014)

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.

MAYA ANGELOU

A Brave and Startling Truth

Tags: love


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

MAYA ANGELOU

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Tags: change


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

Tags: history


I believe most plain girls are virtuous because of the scarcity of opportunity to be otherwise.

MAYA ANGELOU

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Tags: virtue


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

Tags: time


Out of the huts of history's shame I rise.

MAYA ANGELOU

Phenomenal Woman


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


Be certain that you do not die without having done something wonderful for humanity.

MAYA ANGELOU

Letter to My Daughter


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


Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.

MAYA ANGELOU

attributed, Women Know Everything!

Tags: music


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

Tags: words


I've learned that making a living is not the same thing as making a life.

MAYA ANGELOU

Facebook post, Mar. 3, 2013

Tags: life


The needs of a society determine its ethics.

MAYA ANGELOU

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Tags: society


Never whine. Whining lets a brute know that a victim is in the neighborhood.

MAYA ANGELOU

Letter to My Daughter


Nothing will work unless you do.

MAYA ANGELOU

Facebook post, Jan. 2, 2014

Tags: work


Talent is like electricity. We don't understand electricity. We use it.

MAYA ANGELOU

attributed, Black Women Writers at Work

Tags: talent


I think a hero is any person really intent on making this a better place for all people.

MAYA ANGELOU

attributed, pinterest

Tags: heroes


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 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

Tags: youth