Maya Angelou’s words have a way of touching the soul. With wisdom, strength, and a deep understanding of life, she inspired generations to embrace love, resilience, and self-worth. Her quotes aren’t just words – they are powerful lessons that can shift your perspective and remind you of what truly matters.
Whether she was speaking about courage, kindness, or the power of words, Maya Angelou had a rare ability to express deep truths in the simplest ways. Her wisdom continues to guide those seeking strength, hope, and a renewed outlook on life.
Let these quotes encourage you, challenge you, and inspire you to see the world – and yourself – with fresh eyes.
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
“If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.”
“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”
“You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.”
“We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.”
“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.”
“When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.”
“I respect myself and insist upon it from everybody. And because I do it, I then respect everybody, too.”
“Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.”
“The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.”
“We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.”
“I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back.”
“If you have only one smile in you, give it to the people you love.”
“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”
“I think we all have empathy. We may not have enough courage to display it.”
“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.”
“Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take but by the moments that take your breath away.”
“Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can’t practice any other virtue consistently.”
“A wise woman wishes to be no one’s enemy; a wise woman refuses to be anyone’s victim.”
“Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.”
“The desire to reach for the stars is ambitious. The desire to reach hearts is wise.”
“If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities.”
“Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with deeper meaning.”
“I’ve learned that making a ‘living’ is not the same thing as ‘making a life.'”
“Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time.”
“Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future, and renders the present inaccessible.”
“Never make someone a priority when all you are to them is an option.”
“My great hope is to laugh as much as I cry; to get my work done and try to love somebody and have the courage to accept the love in return.”
“While I know myself as a creation of God, I am also obligated to realize and remember that everyone else and everything else are also God’s creation.”
“I learned a long time ago the wisest thing I can do is be on my own side, be an advocate for myself and others like me.”
“Everything in the universe has a rhythm, everything dances.”
“If I am not good to myself, how can I expect anyone else to be good to me?”
“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.”
“You are the sum total of everything you’ve ever seen, heard, eaten, smelled, been told, forgot—it’s all there.”
“I’ve learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision.”
“The need for change bulldozed a road down the center of my mind.”
“Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean.”
“I work very hard, and I play very hard. I’m grateful for life. And I live it – I believe life loves the liver of it. I live it.”
“The children to whom we read simple stories may or may not show gratitude, but each boon we give strengthens the pillars of the world.”
“History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.”
“There’s a world of difference between truth and facts. Facts can obscure truth.”
“Each time I write a book, every time I face that yellow pad, the challenge is so great. I have written eleven books, but each time I think, ‘Uh oh, they’re going to find out now. I’ve run a game on everybody and they’re going to find me out.'”
“I am grateful to be a woman. I must have done something great in another life.”
“Listen to yourself and in that quietude you might hear the voice of God.”
“A woman in harmony with her spirit is like a river flowing. She goes where she will without pretense and arrives at her destination prepared to be herself and only herself.”
“The honorary duty of a human being is to love.”
“I am a Woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal Woman, that’s me.”
“If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. Don’t complain.”
“One isn’t necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential.”
“A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.”
“You may shoot me with your words, you may cut me with your eyes, you may kill me with your hatefulness, but still, like air, I’ll rise.”
“Nothing can dim the light which shines from within.”
“Some people cannot see a good thing when it is right here, right now. Others can sense a good thing coming when it is days, months, or miles away.”
“Ask for what you want and be prepared to get it.”
“If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded.”
“I believe that each of us comes from the Creator trailing wisps of glory.”
“Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his needs, is good for him.”
“Open your eyes to the beauty around you, open your mind to the wonders of life, open your heart to those who love you, and always be true to yourself.”
“We are not just flesh and bone. And for me that is my inspiration.”
“Each person deserves a day away in which no problems are confronted, no solutions searched for.”
“A wise person speaks carefully and with truth, for every word that passes between one’s teeth is meant for something.”
“To those who have given up on love: I say, ‘Trust life a little bit.'”
“At the end of the day people won’t remember what you said or did, they will remember how you made them feel.”
“All men are prepared to accomplish the incredible if their ideals are threatened.”
“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.”
“My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy.”
“Life is pure adventure, and the sooner we realize that, the quicker we will be able to treat life as art.”
“When I look back, I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature.”
“If we lose love and self respect for each other, this is how we finally die.”
“Hate, it has caused a lot of problems in the world, but has not solved one yet.”
“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.'”
“You can only become truly accomplished at something you love.”
“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.”
“Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.”
“Determine to live life with flair and laughter.”
“I know for sure that loves saves me and that it is here to save us all.”
“The main thing in one’s own private world is to try to laugh as much as you cry.”
“Be present in all things and thankful for all things.”
“If growing up is painful for the Southern Black girl, being aware of her displacement is the rust on the razor that threatens the throat.”
“I’ve never had a dislike for men. I’ve been badly treated by some. But I’ve been loved greatly by some. I married a lot of them.”
“When people show you who they are, believe them.”
“You can tell a lot about a person by the way they handle these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.”
“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.”
“There’s something which impels us to show our inner souls. The more courageous we are, the more we succeed in explaining what we know.”
“The black female is assaulted in her tender years by all those common forces of nature at the same time she is caught in the tripartite crossfire of masculine prejudice, white illogical hate and black lack of power.”
“I wrote some of the worst poetry west from the Mississippi River, but I wrote. And I finally sometimes got it right.”
“Self-pity in its early stages is as snug as a feather mattress. Only when it hardens does it become uncomfortable.”
“A cynical young person is almost the saddest sight to see, because it means that he or she has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing.”
“I believe that every person is born with talent.”
“I am convinced that most people do not grow up. We find parking spaces and honor our credit cards. We marry and dare to have children and call that growing up.”
“All knowledge is spendable currency, depending on the market.”
“It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.”
“I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself.”
“Politicians must set their aims for the high ground and according to our various leanings, Democratic, Republican, Independent, we will follow. Politicians must be told if they continue to sink into the mud of obscenity, they will proceed alone.”
“We write for the same reason that we walk, talk, climb mountains or swim the oceans — because we can. We have some impulse within us that makes us want to explain ourselves to other human beings.”
“I’m grateful to intelligent people. That doesn’t mean educated. That doesn’t mean intellectual. I mean really intelligent. What black old people used to call ‘mother wit’ means intelligence that you had in your mother’s womb. That’s what you rely on. You know what’s right to do.”
“The idea is to write it so that people hear it and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the heart.”
“The quality of strength lined with tenderness is an unbeatable combination.”
“I answer the most rudimentary question. Does a human being have the right to be? And can a human being answer that question, affirmatively, without having to answer another question, to be what?”
“I encourage courtesy. To accept nothing less than courtesy, and to give nothing less than courtesy.”
Final Thoughts
Maya Angelou’s words remind us that life is about growth, compassion, and authenticity. She believed in the power of kindness, resilience, and standing tall in the face of adversity.
Take these quotes to heart, let them guide your journey, and remember – you have the power to shape your own story.
