MAYA ANGELOU QUOTES III

American poet (1928-2014)

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


Take a month
and show some kindness
for the folks
who thought that blindness
was an illness that
affected eyes alone.

MAYA ANGELOU

"Take Time Out"


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


I have a certain way of being in this world, and I shall not, I shall not be moved.

MAYA ANGELOU

Phenomenal Woman


Every experience shapes your writing, being stuck in a car on a lonely bridge, or dancing at a prom, being the it girl on the beach, all of those things influence your life, they influence how you write, and the topics you choose to write about.

MAYA ANGELOU

Facebook post, Oct. 13, 2012

Tags: writing


There is nothing so pitiful as a young cynic because he has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing.

MAYA ANGELOU

attributed, The Truth in Words

Tags: cynicism


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


I would be a liar, a hypocrite, or a fool--and I'm not any of those--to say that I don't write for the reader. I do. But for the reader who hears, who really will work at it, going behind what I seem to say. So I write for myself and that reader who will pay the dues.

MAYA ANGELOU

interview, The Paris Review, fall 1990

Tags: writing


I realized that I didn't get here by myself. I am a child of God and that's a blessing and because I have the blessing of God and the knowledge, I have no modesty because it is a learned adaptation. People are just fooling themselves in trying to fool other people when they say, "Oh me! Oh! I'm modest, I can't do this!" I have no modesty, I have humility. Humility comes from inside out and it says, "Someone was here before me and someone has already paid for me." I have a responsibility to pay for someone else who is yet to come, there is no room in there for ego! I am grateful to God. I am grateful to all my people who have helped me and all the ways they've helped me, the teachers, preachers, rabbis, and priests. Everyone that has helped me, I am grateful and I try to help someone else as often as I can.

MAYA ANGELOU

interview, Beautifully Said Magazine, Jul. 2012


The needs of a society determine its ethics.

MAYA ANGELOU

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Tags: society


Nothing will work unless you do.

MAYA ANGELOU

Facebook post, Jan. 2, 2014

Tags: work


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


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


The quality of strength lined with tenderness is an unbeatable combination.

MAYA ANGELOU

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Tags: strength


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

MAYA ANGELOU

attributed, Black Women Writers at Work

Tags: talent


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

Facebook post, Jul. 5, 2011


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


I, with millions of other Americans, have the same dream Martin Luther King Jr. had; when I wake up I wish some of the things I dreamt would be true. I wish that little black and white boys and girls would hold hands without being shocked at their nearness to each other and say in a natural way, "we have overcome."

MAYA ANGELOU

Facebook post, Aug. 28, 2013

Tags: Martin Luther King, Jr.


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


Hatred is the ballast of
the rock
which lies upon our necks
and underfoot.

MAYA ANGELOU

"Glory Falls"

Tags: hate