Maya Angelou was an influential poet, fantastic actress, singer, and activist, but most importantly, she is always going to be remembered as a celebrated author of all time. She was a legendary lady who knows how to inject a hearty dose of inspiration and beauty in one’s life through her words and works.
Throughout her life, Maya received over 50 honorary degrees and is acknowledged for her sequence of 7 autobiographies, which depicts the saga of childhood times and experiences of adulthood.
She is an epitome of success and artistry; in 2010, Maya was honored with the country’s most prestigious award, ‘Presidential Medal of Freedom’ by President Barack Obama. Maya Angelou was one of those strongest women who will be cherished for her courage and wisdom for many years.
Get some inspiration from these Maya Angelou Quotes on Life and Success and fall in love with your journey despite facing challenges.
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
Love is like a virus. It can happen to anybody at any time.
Maya Angelou
Life loves the person who dares to live it.
Maya Angelou
Everything in the universe has a rhythm, everything dances.
Maya Angelou
As far as I knew white women were never lonely, except in books. White men adored them, Black men desired them and Black women worked for them.
Maya Angelou
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
Maya Angelou
Few, if any, survive their teens. Most surrender to the vague but murderous pressure of adult conformity.
Maya Angelou
For Africa to me… is more than a glamorous fact. It is a historical truth. No man can know where he is going unless he knows exactly where he has been and exactly how he arrived at his present place.
Maya Angelou
You want me to do something… tell me I can’t do it.
Maya Angelou
Ain’t nothin’ to it, but to do it.
Maya Angelou
Nothing can dim the light which shines from within.
Maya Angelou
In all the world, there is no heart for me like yours. In all the world, there is no love for you like mine.
Maya Angelou
Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean.
Maya Angelou
If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.
Maya Angelou
If you have only one smile in you, give it to the people you love. Don’t be surly at home, then go out in the street and start grinning ‘Good morning’ at total strangers.
Maya Angelou
Never make someone a priority when all you are to them is an option.
Maya Angelou
Life is pure adventure, and the sooner we realize that, the quicker we will be able to treat life as art.
Maya Angelou
And one of my absolute favorite quotes of all-time, one that I’ve adopted as one of my greatest life mottos: Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told: I’m with you kid. Let’s go.
Maya Angelou
When you wish someone joy, you wish them peace, love, prosperity, happiness… all the good things.
Maya Angelou
Won’t it be wonderful when black history and native American history and Jewish history and all of U.S. history is taught from one book. Just U.S. history.
Maya Angelou
Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.
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
When we give cheerfully and accept gratefully, everyone is blessed.
Maya Angelou
At the end of the day people won’t remember what you said or did, they will remember how you made them feel.
Maya Angelou
My wish for you is that you continue. Continue to be who and how you are, to astonish a mean world with your acts of kindness.
Maya Angelou
Surviving is important. Thriving is elegant.
Maya Angelou
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
The breezes of the West African night were intimate and shy, licking the hair, sweeping through cotton dresses with unseemly intimacy, then disappearing into the utter blackness.
Maya Angelou
One isn’t necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential.
Maya Angelou
Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him.
Maya Angelou
Life loves the liver of it.
Maya Angelou
The hope, the hope that lives in the breast of the black American, is just so tremendous that it overwhelms me sometimes.
Maya Angelou
The difference between charity and philanthropy is the distance of the soul… To be philanthropic is to give something, to be charitable is to give one’s own heart.
Maya Angelou
How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!
Maya Angelou
The most called-upon prerequisite of a friend is an accessible ear.
Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou Quotes About Life
One of America’s beloved poets and celebrated novelists Maya Angelou effortlessly fits into anything she has ever done in her life. In her writings, one can sense the pain of having a troubled childhood and tumultuous youth and her fearlessness to beat life and rose above everything to become the iconic woman of the literary world.
She inspired millions of women till date and will keep on motivating through her heart-touching poetries that depicts her struggles and miseries and her way back to life as the strongest woman.
We have so much to learn from a personality who dwells herself perfectly into many roles and succeeds as well. She was a journalist, a historian, an essayist, memoirist, director, singer and performer and of course an incredible woman who inspires others to be what they want to be! Let’s cherish her legacy through our favorite Inspiring Quotes from Maya Angelou.
A wise woman wishes to be no one’s enemy; a wise woman refuses to be anyone’s victim.
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
Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.
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
Hate. It has caused a lot of problems in this world but it has not solved one yet.
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
If you have only one smile in you give it to the people you love.
Maya Angelou
Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told: ‘I’m with you kid. Let’s go.’
Maya Angelou
I would like to be known as an intelligent woman, a courageous woman, a loving woman, a woman who teaches by being.
Maya Angelou
I believe that every person is born with talent.
Maya Angelou
If you are always trying to be normal you will never know how amazing you can be.
Maya Angelou
At 50, I began to know who I was. It was like waking up to myself.
Maya Angelou
Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.
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
If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded.
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
I’m always disappointed when people don’t live up to their potential. I know that a number of people look down on themselves and consequently on everybody who looks like them. But that, too, can change.
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
Hope and fear cannot occupy the same space at the same time. Invite one to stay.
Maya Angelou
I know for sure that loves saves me and that it is here to save us all.
Maya Angelou
The desire to reach the stars is ambitious. The desire to reach hearts is wise and most possible.
Maya Angelou
Loving someone liberates the lover as well as the beloved. And that kind of love comes with age.
Maya Angelou
It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.
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
If we lose love and self respect for each other, this is how we finally die.
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
In all my work, in the movies I write, the lyrics, the poetry, the prose, the essays, I am saying that we may encounter many defeats – maybe it’s imperative that we encounter the defeats – but we are much stronger than we appear to be and maybe much better than we allow ourselves to be.
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
All great achievements require time.
Maya Angelou
I believe that each of us comes from the Creator trailing wisps of glory.
Maya Angelou
Success is liking yourself, liking what you do and liking how you do it.
Maya Angelou
Nothing succeeds like success. Get a little success, and then just get a little more.
Maya Angelou
I know for sure that loves saves me and that it is here to save us all.
Maya Angelou
A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.
Maya Angelou
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.
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
If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.
Maya Angelou
I respect myself and insist upon it from everybody. And because I do it, I then respect everybody, too.
Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou Inspirational Quotes
Besides being famous as the most celebrated author and poet, Maya Angelou was an active participant throughout the Civil Rights Movement’s and worked with another iconic leader like Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X to become a voice of the suppressed black people and women of the society.
Apart from that, Maya was an educator and a renowned Hollywood’s first black female director. We cannot jot down her talents and multiple inspiring personalities in one go! A woman who was subjected to abuse, racism and violence while growing upturned her pain into prose and poems!
After travelling abroad for many years, she came back to the U.S to write her first autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, that is still considered as her highest praised works today. She is an absolute timeless reminder to all of us that how one can impact the life of millions of others! to know more have a look at Maya Angelou Quotes on Womanhood
The only thing is, people have to develop courage.
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
We are only as blind as we want to be.
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
I believe that every person is born with talent.
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
Never make someone a priority when all you are to them is an option.
Maya Angelou
Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.
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 am grateful to be a woman. I must have done something great in another life.
Maya Angelou
Seek patience and passion in equal amounts. Patience alone will not build the temple. Passion alone will destroy its walls.
Maya Angelou
Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time.
Maya Angelou
I’ve learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision.
Maya Angelou
Faith is the evidence of the unseen.
Maya Angelou
Never make someone a priority when all you are to them is an option.
Maya Angelou
We need joy as we need air. We need love as we need water. We need each other as we need the earth we share.
Maya Angelou
I’ve learned that I still have a lot to learn.
Maya Angelou
I created myself. I have taught myself so much.
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 something back.
Maya Angelou
When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.
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’re always trying to be normal you will never know how amazing you can be.
Maya Angelou
We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.
Maya Angelou
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
I did then what I knew best, when I knew better, I did better.
Maya Angelou
Seek patience and passion in equal amounts. Patience alone will not build the temple. Passion alone will destroy its walls.
Maya Angelou
Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible…We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.
Maya Angelou
Determine to live life with flair and laughter.
Maya Angelou
I respect myself and insist upon it from everybody. And because I do it, I then respect everybody, too.
Maya Angelou
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.
Maya Angelou
There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.
Maya Angelou
In all my work what I try to say is that as human beings we are more alike than we are unalike.
Maya Angelou
I’ve learned that making a living is not the same thing as making a life.
Maya Angelou
Remember, people will judge you by your actions not your intentions. You may have a heart of gold but so does a hard-boiled egg.
Maya Angelou
Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take but by the moments that take your breath away.
Maya Angelou
I make writing as much a part of my life as I do eating or listening to music.
Maya Angelou
I got my own back.
Maya Angelou
No human being can be more human than another human being. I liberate you from my ignorance.
Maya Angelou
Stand up straight and realize who you are. That you tower over your circumstances. You are a child of God. Stand up straight.
Maya Angelou
All great artists draw from the same resource: the human heart, which tells us all that we are more alike than we are unalike.
Maya Angelou
Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.
Maya Angelou
If you’re a human being, you can attempt to do what other human beings have done. We don’t understand talent any more than we understand electricity.
Maya Angelou
All knowledge is spendable currency, depending on the market.
Maya Angelou
Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.
Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou a literary icon, who is famous for plenty of titles and recognition but today we honour her as a woman who uplifted the society through her charm, determination, hard work! If you are having trouble finding happiness in misery, then go on and read her quotes to get the motivation to deal life in any conditions,