Maya Angelou Inspiring quotes

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I'm telling lies.
I say,
It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

__________________

Maya Angelou (April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014) was a celebrated author, influential poet, dancer, actress, singer and activist. Maya received over 50 honorary degrees and is celebrated for her series of 7 autobiographies, which focus on her childhood and adult experiences. Maya Angelou’s life represented confidence, contribution, and perseverance.


Maya Angelou was famous for her teachings, through her spoken word and her written poetry which explored the experiences and viewpoints of being an African-American woman in the United States, as well as more inspirational works that helped shape modern day and mainstream poetry and prose. Her inspiring lessons remain as intrinsic a part of American culture, perhaps even more after her passing, and now seems like an opportune time to revisit these sagacious teachings.

__________________

Here are some of our favorite Maya Angelou quotes! Her words are a mix of straight talk and poetry and her messages transcend race and generations, enjoy!


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.  – Maya Angelou

If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.  – Maya Angelou

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 some things back.  – Maya Angelou

I’ve learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision.  – Maya Angelou

I’ve learned that even when I have pains, I don’t have to be one.  – Maya Angelou

I’ve learned that every day you should reach out and touch someone. People love a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back.  – Maya Angelou

I’ve learned that I still have a lot to learn.  – Maya Angelou

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.  – Maya Angelou

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.   – Maya Angelou

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.  – Maya Angelou

Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.  – Maya Angelou

Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can’t practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.  – Maya Angelou

Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.  – Maya Angelou

If you have only one smile in you give it to the people you love.   – Maya Angelou 

Nothing will work unless you do.  – Maya Angelou

You are the sum total of everything you’ve ever seen, heard, eaten, smelled, been told, forgot – it’s all there. Everything influences each of us, and because of that I try to make sure that my experiences are positive.  – Maya Angelou

We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.   – Maya Angelou

One isn’t necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can’t be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.  – Maya Angelou

A wise woman wishes to be no one’s enemy; a wise woman refuses to be anyone’s victim.  – Maya Angelou

Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with deeper meaning.   – Maya Angelou

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.  – Maya Angelou

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.’  – Maya Angelou

All great achievements require time.  – Maya Angelou

History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.  – Maya Angelou

If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. Don’t complain.  – Maya Angelou

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.  – Maya Angelou

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.  – Maya Angelou

It’s one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself, to forgive. Forgive everybody.  – Maya Angelou

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.  – Maya Angelou

If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded.  – Maya Angelou

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.  – Maya Angelou

Love is like a virus. It can happen to anybody at any time.  – Maya Angelou

I know that when I pray, something wonderful happens. Not just to the person or persons for whom I’m praying, but also something wonderful happens to me. I’m grateful that I’m heard.  – Maya Angelou

I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver.  – Maya Angelou

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.  – Maya Angelou

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.  – Maya Angelou

 Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told: ‘I’m with you kid. Let’s go.’  – Maya Angelou

I believe that every person is born with talent.  – Maya Angelou

At 50, I began to know who I was. It was like waking up to myself.  – Maya Angelou

My greatest blessing has been the birth of my son. My next greatest blessing has been my ability to turn people into children of mine.  – Maya Angelou

I love the song ‘I Hope You Dance’ by Lee Ann Womack. I was going to write that song, but someone beat me to it.  – Maya Angelou

In all my work, I try to say, ‘You may be given a load of sour lemons, why not try to make a dozen lemon meringue pies?’   – Maya Angelou

I know for sure that loves saves me and that it is here to save us all.  – Maya Angelou

Loving someone liberates the lover as well as the beloved. And that kind of love comes with age.  – Maya Angelou

Everyone has at least one story, and each of us is funny if we admit it. You have to admit you’re the funniest person you’ve ever heard of.  – Maya Angelou

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.  – Maya Angelou 

I wrote some of the worst poetry west from the Mississippi River, but I wrote. And I finally sometimes got it right.  – Maya Angelou 

You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.   – Maya Angelou

Courage – you develop courage by doing small things like just as if you wouldn’t want to pick up a 100-pound weight without preparing yourself.  – Maya Angelou

I believe that each of us comes from the Creator trailing wisps of glory.   – Maya Angelou

Nothing succeeds like success. Get a little success, and then just get a little more.  – Maya Angelou

A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.  – Maya Angelou

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!   – Maya Angelou

I respect myself and insist upon it from everybody. And because I do it, I then respect everybody, too.  – Maya Angelou

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.  – Maya Angelou

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.   – Maya Angelou

There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.  – Maya Angelou

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.  – Maya Angelou

We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.  – Maya Angelou

You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.  – Maya Angelou

Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time.  – Maya Angelou

The desire to reach for the stars is ambitious. The desire to reach hearts is wise.  – Maya Angelou

I’ve learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow.  – Maya Angelou

I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.  – Maya Angelou

I’ve learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you’ll miss them when they’re gone from your life.  – Maya Angelou

I’ve learned that making a “living” is not the same thing as “making a life.  – Maya Angelou

I’ve learned that life sometimes gives you a second chance.  – Maya Angelou

We are all creative, but by the time we are three or four years old someone has knocked creativity out of us. Some people shut up the kids who start to tell stories. Kids dance in their cribs, but someone will insist they sit still. By the time the creative people are ten or twelve, they want to be like everyone else.