313 Maya Angelou Quotes and Sayings
1. "A mother’s love liberates."
2. "Life loves the liver of it."
3. "Whining is just unbecoming."
4. "Everybody is worth everything."
5. "Only equals can become friends."
6. "Only equals can become friends."
7. "Nothing will work unless you do."
8. "I know why the caged bird sings."
9. "Effective action is always unjust."
10. "I have great respect for the past."
11. "All great achievements require time."
12. "Be a rainbow in someone else’s cloud."
13. "Achievement brings its own anticlimax."
14. "We are only as blind as we want to be."
15. "I don’t trust anyone who doesn’t laugh."
16. "My mother raised me, and then freed me."
17. "When you get give. When you learn teach."
18. "We need much less than we think we need."
19. "Forgiveness is a gift you give yourself."
20. "I try to see every day as a celebration."
21. "I sustain myself with the love of family."
22. "When you learn, teach, when you get, give."
23. "The needs of society determine its ethics."
24. "Surviving is important. Thriving is elegant."
25. "When I decided to speak, I had a lot to say."
26. "Your belief and your work will speak for you."
27. "The honorary duty of a human being is to love."
28. "I’ve learned that I still have a lot to learn."
29. "Determine to live life with flair and laughter."
30. "Ask for what you want and be prepared to get it!"
31. "I believe that every person is born with talent."
32. "I became the kind of parent my mother was to me."
33. "A friend may be waiting behind a stranger’s face."
34. "If I have a monument in this world, it is my son."
35. "Nobody can enjoy unless we all enjoy, truly enjoy."
36. "We are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike."
37. "Be present in all things and thankful for all things."
38. "Be present in all things and thankful for all things."
39. "You can’t get too high for somebody to bring you down."
40. "If someone shows you who they really are, believe them."
41. "On her mother: She’d talk to me as if I had some sense."
42. "I do my best because I’m counting on you counting on me."
43. "I am a Woman. Phenomenally. Phenomenal Woman, that’s me."
44. "We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated."
45. "You alone are enough. You have nothing to prove to anybody."
46. "This is a wonderful day, I have never seen this one before."
47. "Everything in the universe has a rhythm, everything dances."
48. "I’ve learned that life sometimes gives you a second chance."
49. "Love is like a virus. It can happen to anybody at any time."
50. "I am overwhelmed by the grace and persistence of my people."
51. "I have respect for the past, but I’m a person of the moment."
52. "When was the last time anyone told you how important you are?"
53. "The need for change bulldozed a road down the center of my mind."
54. "You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have."
55. "The best candy shop a child can be left alone in, is the library."
56. "I’ve learned that even when I have pains, I don’t have to be one."
57. "Alone, all alone. Nobody, but nobody. Can make it out here alone."
58. "There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you."
59. "When we give cheerfully and accept gratefully, everyone is blessed."
60. "The most called-upon prerequisite of a friend is an accessible ear."
61. "Never make someone a priority when all you are to them is an option."
62. "To those who have given up on love: I say, “Trust life a little bit”."
63. "There is a very fine line between loving life and being greedy for it."
64. "If one has courage, nothing can dim the light which shines from within."
65. "Children’s talent to endure stems from their ignorance of alternatives."
66. "I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself."
67. "Listen to yourself and in that quietude you might hear the voice of God."
68. "Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it."
69. "I can be changed by what happens to me, but I refuse to be reduced by it."
70. "Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time."
71. "Whining lets the brute know there’s a victim for him in the neighborhood."
72. "I want you to learn that you cannot have anything without working for it."
73. "If I am not good to myself, how can I expect anyone else to be good to me?"
74. "Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told, ‘I’m with you kid. Let’s go’."
75. "She comprehended the perversity of life, that in the struggle lies the joy."
76. "I am grateful to have been loved and to be loved now and to be able to love."
77. "If we lose love and self respect for each other, this is how we finally die."
78. "You can’t really know where you are going until you know where you have been."
79. "You listen with interest. That gives some sense of confidence to the speaker."
80. "I’ve learned that making a “living” is not the same thing as making a “life”."
81. "How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!"
82. "Hate, it has caused a lot of problems in the world, but has not solved one yet."
83. "I want all my senses engaged. Let me absorb the world’s variety and uniqueness."
84. "Don’t hesitate to learn the most painful aspects of our history, understand it."
85. "Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better."
86. "If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded."
87. "If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities."
88. "I’ve learned that forgiving is one of the greatest gifts that I can give myself."
89. "If you are always trying to be normal you will never know how amazing you can be."
90. "All men are prepared to accomplish the incredible if their ideals are threatened."
91. "The desire to reach for the stars is ambitious. The desire to reach hearts is wise."
92. "I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver."
93. "There’s a world of difference between truth and facts. Facts can obscure the truth."
94. "We are here to love each other. That is why you are alive. That is what life is for."
95. "Hoping for the best, prepared for the worst, and unsurprised by anything in between."
96. "If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude."
97. "Take your time to read those. They are deep. (I personally re-read them a few times!)"
98. "Stormy or sunny days, glorious or lonely nights, I maintain an attitude of gratitude."
99. "Most plain girls are virtuous because of the scarcity of opportunity to be otherwise."
100. "A wise woman wishes to be no one’s enemy; a wise woman refuses to be anyone’s victim."
101. "My people couldn’t have survived slavery without having hope that it would get better."
102. "A woman’s heart should be so hidden in God that a man has to seek Him just to find her."
103. "The problem I have with haters is that they see my glory, but they don’t know my story."
104. "My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy."
105. "I think a hero is any person really intent on making this a better place for all people."
106. "If you want to liberate someone, love them. Not be in love with them – that’s dangerous."
107. "I am not competing with anyone other than myself. I want to be excellent at whatever I do."
108. "My pride had been starched by a family who assumed unlimited authority in its own affairs."
109. "You can ask forgiveness of others, but in the end the real forgiveness is in one’s own self."
110. "When we find someone who is brave, fun, intelligent, and loving, we have to thank the universe."
111. "Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean."
112. "Develop enough courage so that you can stand up for yourself and then stand up for somebody else."
113. "When you wish someone joy, you wish them peace, love, prosperity, happiness… all the good things."
114. "Home is a refuge not only from the world, but a refuge from my worries, my troubles, my concerns."
115. "The truth is, right may not be expedient. It may not be profitable, but it will satisfy your soul."
116. "I believe that the most important single thing, beyond discipline and creativity is daring to dare."
117. "Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness."
118. "I encourage courtesy. To accept nothing less than courtesy, and to give nothing less than courtesy."
119. "It’s the fire in my eyes, and the flash of my teeth, the swing in my waist, and the joy in my feet."
120. "Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away."
121. "I’ve learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision."
122. "The only way you can be a mark is if you want something for nothing. If you’re greedy, you’re set up."
123. "The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned."
124. "Grace is like a lake of drinkable water right outside your door. But you stay inside and die of thirst."
125. "We are not just flesh and blood. And our hungers are not going to be set aside as just flesh and blood."
126. "A leader sees greatness in other people. He nor she can be much of a leader if all she sees is herself."
127. "This is what I am learning, at 82 years old: the main thing is to be in love with the search for truth."
128. "I like to speak on matters which matter to human beings, and almost everything matters to human beings."
129. "On what she feels about the world today: I feel very hopeful, very expectant. I’m looking forward to it."
130. "Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible."
131. "The thing to do, it seems to me, is to prepare yourself so you can be a rainbow in somebody else’s cloud."
132. "Life is pure adventure, and the sooner we realize that, the quicker we will be able to treat life as art."
133. "I’m a descendant of someone bought and sold, and brought in 1619 in what was to become the United States."
134. "I had to trust life, since I was young enough to believe that life loved the person who dared to live it."
135. "I think we ought to give ourselves more time. We should be more patient with ourselves and with each other."
136. "There is nothing so pitiful as a young cynic because he has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing."
137. "History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again."
138. "It’s very hard for adults to maintain respect and romance so that a love affair can be sustained over years."
139. "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."
140. "Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with deeper meaning."
141. "When you know you are of worth — not asking it but knowing it — you walk into a room with a particular power."
142. "The root cause of all the problems we have in the world today is ignorance of course. But most, polarization."
143. "We need to not be in denial about what we’ve done, what we’ve come through. It will help us if we all do that."
144. "The idea is to write it so that people hear it and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the heart."
145. "If I’m here, I’ll be trying to be a better human being, a better writer, a better friend and a better beloved."
146. "I’m here, and I do my best to be completely centered at the place I’m at, then I go forward to the next place."
147. "Let’s tell the truth to people. When people ask, ‘How are you?’ have the nerve sometimes to answer truthfully."
148. "It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength."
149. "Every day I awaken I am grateful. My intent is to be totally present in that day. And laugh as much as possible."
150. "It’s very important to know the neighbor next door and the people down the street and the people in another race."
151. "Self-pity in its early stages is as snug as a feather mattress. Only when it hardens does it become uncomfortable."
152. "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."
153. "We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty."
154. "I’ve learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow."
155. "Those who have something to say accept the fact that that’s lonely. One already knows that there will be adversaries."
156. "I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life’s a bitch. You’ve got to go out and kick ass."
157. "I’ve learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you’ll miss them when they’re gone from your life."
158. "Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope."
159. "If you happen to fall in love with someone in another race, it’s more difficult, because you have to translate yourself."
160. "I think we have systematically and critically harmed ourselves and many young people by advising them not to try things."
161. "My heart is so heavy when I see the reality of the Indian reservation and as an American, I know I am, too, responsible."
162. "While the rest of the world has been improving technology, Ghana has been improving the quality of man’s humanity to man."
163. "My mother is so full of joy and life. I am her child. And that is better than being the child of anyone else in the world."
164. "Life is going to give you just what you put in it. Put your whole heart in everything you do, and pray, then you can wait."
165. "Seek patience and passion in equal amounts. Patience alone will not build the temple. Passion alone will destroy its walls."
166. "Seek patience and passion in equal amounts. Patience alone will not build the temple. Passion alone will destroy its walls."
167. "My work is to be honest. My work is to try to think clearly, then have the courage to make sure that what I say is the truth."
168. "Stand up straight and realize who you are, that you tower over your circumstances. You are a child of God. Stand up straight."
169. "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."
170. "I do hope that young men and women will start to think for themselves and start to take responsibility for their own thoughts."
171. "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."
172. "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."
173. "God puts rainbows in the clouds so that each of us – in the dreariest and most dreaded moments – can see a possibility of hope."
174. "Don’t do anything that you think is wrong. Just do what you think is right, and then be ready to back it up even with your life."
175. "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."
176. "Each child belongs to all of us and they will bring us a tomorrow in direct relation to the responsibility we have shown to them."
177. "The love of the family, the love of one person can heal. It heals the scars left by a larger society. A massive, powerful society."
178. "People trying to separate people rather than bring us together… please. You don’t just see it in America. It’s all over the world."
179. "You may write me down in history with your bitter, twisted lies. You may trod me in the very dirt, but still like dust, I’ll rise."
180. "People feel guilty. And guilt is stymieing. Guilt immobilizes. Guilt closes the air ducts and the veins, and makes people ignorant."
181. "When I forgive other people, I let them go, I free them from my ignorance. And as soon as I do, I feel lighter, brighter and better."
182. "It’s hard because people think they have something to lose and the truth is they have everything to gain in trying to love somebody."
183. "If I’m going to a new country, I try to learn something about the language and the culture, so I don’t just go bumbling over things."
184. "The most difficult thing in the world, it seems to me, is to realize that I am a child of God; to keep that in my mind all the time."
185. "We are growing up. We are growing up! Out of the idiocies – the ignorances of racism and sexism and ageism and all those ignorances."
186. "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."
187. "At fifteen life had taught me undeniably that surrender, in its place, was as honorable as resistance, especially if one had no choice."
188. "Courage, I don’t think anybody is born with courage. I think you may be born with a flair to braggadocio, you know. That’s not courage."
189. "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!"
190. "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."
191. "To develop courage you have to start developing courage as you do any other muscle. You have to start with small things and build it up."
192. "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."
193. "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."
194. "In order to win, we pay with energy and effort and discipline. If we lose, we pay in disappointment, discontent, and lack of fulfillment."
195. "My equipment tends to be that of a social humanitarian and a poet, which I suppose is the same thing, and I tend to watch how people are."
196. "You only are free when you realize you belong no place – you belong every place – no place at all. The price is high. The reward is great."
197. "Courage allows the successful woman to fail – and to learn powerful lessons from the failure – so that in the end, she didn’t fail at all."
198. "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."
199. "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."
200. "A man or woman who sees other people as whole and prepared and accords them respect and the same rights has arranged his or her own allies."
201. "I am a woman phenomenally, phenomenal woman that is your grandmother, that is your mother, that is your sister, that is you and that is me."
202. "We may encounter many defeats, but we must not be defeated. It may even be necessary to encounter the defeat, so that we can know who we are."
203. "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."
204. "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."
205. "Nature has no mercy at all. Nature says, ‘I’m going to snow. If you have on a bikini and no snowshoes, that’s tough. I am going to snow anyway.’"
206. "The quality of strength lined with tenderness is an unbeatable combination, as are intelligence and necessity when unblunted by formal education."
207. "We spend precious hours fearing the inevitable. It would be wise to use that time adoring our families, cherishing our friends and living our lives."
208. "You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them. (See also: 14 Ways to Be Fearless, lifehack.org)"
209. "Let gratitude be the pillow upon which you kneel to say your nightly prayer. And let faith be the bridge you build to overcome evil and welcome good."
210. "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."
211. "I never have written every day. When I’m writing a book, I write Monday through Friday. I always try to take Saturday and pretend to have some sanity."
212. "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."
213. "First best is falling in love. Second best is being in love. Least best is falling out of love. But any of it is better than never having been in love."
214. "If I am going to do the most difficult and frightening thing – dying – is it possible that I could do some difficult and impossible things that are good?"
215. "The sadness of the women’s movement is that they don’t allow the necessity of love. See, I don’t personally trust any revolution where love is not allowed."
216. "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."
217. "It is imperative that young white men and women study the black American history. It is imperative that blacks and whites study the Asian American history."
218. "A bird that stalks down his narrow cage can seldom see through his bars of rage his wings are clipped and his feet are tied so he opens his throat to sing."
219. "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."
220. "I think the more we know the better we are. I mean not just facts. The more we know about each other, the closer we are to learn something about our selves."
221. "The real difficulty is to overcome how you think about yourself. If we don’t have that we never grow, we never learn, and sure as hell we should never teach."
222. "I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way (s)he handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights."
223. "If you must look back, do so forgivingly. If you will look forward, do so prayerfully. But the wisest course would be to be present in the present gratefully."
224. "A caged bird stands on the grave of dreams his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream his wings are clipped and his feet are tied so he opens his throat to sing."
225. "The caged bird sings with a fearful trill of things unknown but longed for still and his tune is heard on the distant hill for the caged bird sings of freedom."
226. "If you want what you’re saying heard, then take your time and say it so that the listener will actually hear it. You might save somebody’s life. Your own, first."
227. "I will look after you and I will look after anybody you say needs to be looked after, any way you say. I am here. I brought my whole self to you. I am your mother."
228. "I do not trust people who don’t love themselves and yet tell me, ‘I love you.’ There is an African saying which is: Be careful when a naked person offers you a shirt."
229. "We all should know that diversity makes for a rich tapestry, and we must understand that all the threads of the tapestry are equal in value no matter what their color."
230. "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."
231. "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."
232. "Most people don’t grow up. Most people age. They find parking spaces, honor their credit cards, get married, have children, and call that maturity. What that is, is aging."
233. "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."
234. "I did get knocked down flat in front of the whole world, and I rose. I didn’t run away – I rose right where I’d been knocked down. And then that’s how you get to know yourself."
235. "If you’re in love with your children, you’re in their lives all the time. Leave them alone. Let them grow and make some mistakes. (See also: Why we should let our children fail)"
236. "If we live long enough, we may even get over war. I imagine a time when somebody will mention the word war and everyone in the room will start to laugh. And what do you mean war?"
237. "My mother’s gifts of courage to me were both large and small. The latter are woven so subtly into the fabric of my psyche that I can hardly distinguish where she stops and I begin."
238. "I believe in living a poetic life, an art full life. Everything we do from the way we raise our children to the way we welcome our friends is part of a large canvas we are creating."
239. "You have to deal with what you encounter. But you must not be reduced. And so a way not to be reduced is don’t whine! Don’t let the incidents which take place in life bring you low."
240. "Each of us has that right, that possibility, to invent ourselves daily. If a person does not invent herself, she will be invented. So, to be bodacious enough to invent ourselves is wise."
241. "When people see the laughing face, even if they’re jealous of it, their burden is lightened. But do it first for yourself. Laugh and dare to try to love somebody, starting with yourself."
242. "We can be better, we can be wiser, we can be more kind. Yes we have to change. We have to grow up and stop acting like 10 years old. Yes there is much to do, much to see, much to go into."
243. "When teachers or people in authority put me down or in one way or another tried to make me feel less than equal to what they thought I should be – my mother was on my side. It was amazing."
244. "I’m considered wise, and sometimes I see myself as knowing. Most of the time, I see myself as wanting to know. And I see myself as a very interested person. I’ve never been bored in my life."
245. "There’s something beautiful about the fact that Obama was not just elected, but elected decisively across racial, and socio-economic and cultural groups and that we all celebrated in his win."
246. "My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy. That some people, unable to go to school, were more educated and more intelligent than college professors."
247. "I believe that people want the scent of love, more than anything else. And I don’t mean sentimentality, I don’t mean mush. I mean that idea, that human beings are more alike than we are different."
248. "I believe what I have to say is important, and I believe the people coming to hear me are important, and so the occasion of itself alone has an importance, which forces me to stare down my nerves."
249. "It is better to control oneself, if one can, and not hit back. But on certain occasions, it is imperative to defend oneself. I don’t think it’s fair to ask anybody not to defend herself or himself."
250. "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."
251. "I like to go back and read poems that I wrote fifty years ago, twenty years ago, and sometimes they surprise me – I didn’t know I knew that then. Or maybe I didn’t know it then, and I know more now."
252. "I have a feeling that I make a very good friend, and I’m a good mother, and a good sister, and a good citizen. I am involved in life itself – all of it. And I have a lot of energy and a lot of nerve."
253. "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."
254. "You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead, pursue the things you love doing, and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off you."
255. "“Can I do it? I’d rather not try and fail”. That’s stupid talk Maya. Every try will not succeed. But if you’re going to live, live at all, your business is trying… You fail, you get up and try again.”"
256. "I know that I’m not the easiest person to live with. The challenge I put on myself is so great that the person I live with feels himself challenged. I bring a lot to bear, and I don’t know how not to."
257. "When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time. People know themselves much better than you do. That’s why it’s important to stop expecting them to be something other than who they are."
258. "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."
259. "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."
260. "I’m really saddened by the attempts to separate and polarize. This is a time when we have hungry people, people out of work, and people out of spirit. This is a time where we need to uplift, not to separate."
261. "In the latter years of your life, your happiness and your self-esteem will be determined by the mountains you surmounted, the valleys you climbed out of, and the life and/or career that you forged for yourself."
262. "Someone was hurt before you, wronged before you, hungry before you, frightened before you, beaten before you, humiliated before you, raped before you… yet, someone survived… You can do anything you choose to do."
263. "If somebody is really trying to take your head off with a baseball bat – I don’t know how long you’re supposed to stand there and turn the other cheek, so he or she can get a better angle at taking your head off."
264. "Happiness is a chance to talk to a friend, to hear good music, to have a good glass of wine. Happiness is a chance to be myself and to find people with whom I agree or who I don’t agree but I can learn something."
265. "Forgiveness. It’s one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself, to forgive. Forgive everybody. You are relieved of carrying that burden of resentment. You really are lighter. You feel lighter. You just drop that."
266. "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."
267. "I have enough of life in me to make somebody jealous enough to want to knock me down. I have so much courage in me that I have the effrontery, the incredible gall to stand up. That’s it. That’s how you get to know who you are."
268. "There’s racism and sexism and ageism and all sorts of idiocies. But bad news is not news. We’ve had bad news as a species for a long time. We’ve had slavery and human sacrifice and the holocaust and brutalities of such measure."
269. "I couldn’t tell fact from fiction, or if the dream was true. My only sure prediction in this world was you. I’d touch your features inchly. Beard love and dared the cost. The sented spiel reeled me unreal and I found my senses lost."
270. "We cannot change the past, but we can change our attitude toward it. Uproot guilt and plant forgiveness. Tear out arrogance and seed humility. Exchange love for hate – thereby, making the present comfortable and the future promising."
271. "The variety of our skin tones can confuse, bemuse, delight, brown and pink and beige and purple, tan and blue and white… I note the obvious differences between each sort and type, but we are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike."
272. "If a person – any human being – is told often enough, “You are nothing. You are nothing. You account for nothing. You count for nothing. You are less than a human being. I have no visibility of you”, the person finally begins to believe it."
273. "My mother had said me, “All right, you’ve been raised, so don’t let anybody else raise you. You know the difference between right and wrong. Do right. And remember – you can always come home.” And she continued to liberate me until she died."
274. "When you know you are of worth, you don’t have to raise your voice, you don’t have to become rude, you don’t have to become vulgar; you just are. And you are like the sky is, as the air is, the same way water is wet. It doesn’t have to protest."
275. "My great blessing is my son, but I have daughters. I have white ones and Black ones and fat ones and thin ones and pretty ones and plain. I have gay ones and straight. I have daughters. I have Asian ones, I have Jewish ones, I have Muslim ones."
276. "I wish that we could look into each other’s faces, in each other’s eyes, and see our own selves. I hope that the children have not been so scarred by their upbringing that they only think fear when they see someone else who looks separate from them."
277. "I not only have the right to stand up for myself, but I have the responsibility. I can’t ask somebody else to stand up for me if I won’t stand up for myself. And once you stand up for yourself, you’d be surprised that people say, “Can I be of help?”."
278. "The fact that the adult American Negro female emerges a formidable character is often met with amazement, distaste and even belligerence. It is seldom accepted as an inevitable outcome of the struggle won by survivors, and deserves respect if not ent."
279. "I believe we are still so innocent. The species are still so innocent that a person who is apt to be murdered believes that the murderer, just before he puts the final wrench on his throat, will have enough compassion to give him one sweet cup of water."
280. "I’m working at trying to be a Christian, and that’s serious business. It’s like trying to be a good Jew, a good Muslim, a good Buddhist, a good Shintoist, a good Zoroastrian, a good friend, a good lover, a good mother, a good buddy – it’s serious business."
281. "There are those who say that poets should use her and his art to change the world. I’d agree with that, but I think everybody should do that. I think the chef and the baker and the candlestick maker – I think everybody should be hoping to make it a better world."
282. "I was told many years ago by my grandmother who raised me: If somebody puts you on a road and you don’t feel comfortable on it and you look ahead and you don’t like the destination and you look behind and you don’t want to return to that place, step off the road."
283. "If the door has been opened and I’ve been invited, or if I’m not invited and I somehow know I’m supposed to go in there, I put myself together and go in, praying all the while. I try to learn something before I go in. I try to show some respect of the place I’m going into."
284. "I believe that each of us comes from the Creator trailing wisps of glory. So at this wonderful, young age of 65, I don’t know yet what the Lord has for me to do. I try to live up to the energy and to the calling, but I wouldn’t dare say I have even scratched the surface yet."
285. "What I really would like said about me is that I dared to love. By love, I mean that condition in the human spirit so profound it encourages us to develop courage and build bridges, and then to trust those bridges and cross the bridges in attempts to reach other human beings."
286. "On her mother: On the night she died, I went to the hospital. I told my mom, “Let me tell you about yourself. You deserved a great daughter, and you got one. And you liberated me to be one. So if it’s time for you to go, you may have done everything God brought you here to do."
287. "I would encourage us all, African Americans, Asians, Latinos, Whites, Native Americans to study history. I long for the time when all the human history is taught as one history. I am stronger because you are stronger. I am weaker if you are weak. So we are more alike than we are unlike."
288. "You can never be great at anything unless you love it. Not be in love with it, but love the thing, admire the thing. And it seems that if you love the thing, and you don’t just want to possess it, it will find you. But if you’re in love with the thing, it may run like hell away from you."
289. "The country didn’t get that way in a week; we’ve had years and years of getting behind in our economy. So President Obama stepped into a hellhole and people wanted him to change it as soon as he came in. But he’s got his adversaries to deal with in the House and Senate, so it’s not easy."
290. "Human beings are more alike than unalike. Whether in Paris, Texas, or Paris, France, we all want to have good jobs where we are needed and respected and paid just a little more than we deserve. We want healthy children, safe streets, to be loved and have the unmitigated gall to accept love."
291. "The truth is very important. No matter how negative it is, it is imperative that you learn the truth, not necessarily the facts. I mean, that, that can come, but facts can stand in front of the truth and almost obscure the truth. It is imperative that students learn the truth of our history."
292. "I pray for humility because that comes from inside out. And what humility does for one, is it reminds us that there are people before me. I have already been paid for. And what I need to do is prepare myself so that I can pay for someone else who has yet to come, but who may be here and needs me."
293. "You should be angry. You must not be bitter. Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. It doesn’t do anything to the object of its displeasure. So use that anger. You write it. You paint it. You dance it. You march it. You vote it. You do everything about it. You talk it. Never stop talking it."
294. "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."
295. "The ship of my life may or may not be sailing on calm and amiable seas. The challenging days of my existence may or may not be bright and promising. Stormy or sunny days, glorious or lonely nights, I maintain an attitude of gratitude. If I insist on being pessimistic, there is always tomorrow. Today I am blessed."
296. "Now you understand just why my head’s not bowed. I don’t shout or jump about or have to talk real loud. When you see me passing it ought to make you proud. I say, it’s in the click of my heels, the bend of my hair, the palm of my hand, the need of my care, ’cause I’m a woman. Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, that’s me."
297. "Men themselves have wondered what they see in me. They try so much but they can’t touch my inner mystery. When I try to show them they say they still can’t see. I say, it’s in the arch of my back, the sun of my smile, the ride of my breasts, the grace of my style. I’m a woman. Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, that’s me."
298. "Joy is a freedom. It helps a person to find his or her own liberation. The person who is joyous takes responsibility for the time he/she takes up and the space that he/she occupies. You share it! Some of you have it … you share it! That is what joy is! When you continue to give it away you will still have so much more of it."
299. "All of my history as an African-American woman, as a Jewish woman, as a Muslim woman. I’m bringing everything I ever knew, and all the stories I’ve read – everything good, strong, kind and powerful. I bring it all with me into every situation, and I will not allow my life to be minimized by anybody’s racism or sexism or ageism."
300. "By love I don’t mean indulgence. I do not mean sentimentality. And in this instance, I don’t even mean romance. I mean that condition that allowed humans to dream of God. That condition that allowed the “dumb” to write spirituals and Russian songs and Irish lilts. That is love, and it’s so much larger than anything I can conceive."
301. "Each one of us has lived through some devastation, some loneliness, some weather superstorm or spiritual superstorm, when we look at each other we must say, I understand. I understand how you feel because I have been there myself. We must support each other and empathize with each other because each of us is more alike than we are unalike."
302. "We need to remember to teach our children that solitude can be a much-to-be-desired condition. Not only is it acceptable to be alone; at times it is positively to be wished for… ..In the silence we listen to ourselves. Then we ask questions of ourselves. We describe ourselves to ourselves, and in the quietude we may even hear the voice of God."
303. "Had I known that the heart breaks slowly, dismantling itself into unrecognizable plots of misery… had I known yet I would have loved you, your brash and insolent beauty, your heavy comedic face and knowledge of sweet delights, but from a distance I would have left you whole and wholly for the delectation of those who wanted more and cared less."
304. "The sisters and brothers that you meet give you the materials which your character uses to build itself. It is said that some people are born great, others achieve it, some have it thrust upon them. In truth, the ways in which your character is built have to do with all three of those. Those around you, those you choose, and those who choose you."
305. "Just do right. Right may not be expedient, it may not be profitable, but it will satisfy your soul. It brings you the kind of protection that bodyguards can’t give you. So try to live your life in a way that you will not regret years of useless virtue and inertia and timidity. Take up the battle. Take it up. It’s yours. This is your life. This is your world."
306. "Look what you’ve already come through! Don’t deny it. You’ve already come through some things, which are very painful. If you’ve been alive until you’re 35, you have gone through some pain. It cost you something. And you’ve come through it. So at least look at that. And have a sense to look at yourself and say, “Well, wait a minute. I’m stronger than I thought I was."
307. "Out of the huts of history’s shame, I rise. Up from a past that’s rooted in pain, I rise. I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide. Welling and swelling I bear in the tide. Leaving behind nights of terror and fear, I rise. Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear, I rise. Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise, I rise, I rise."
308. "I’m convinced that the negative has power. It lives. And if you allow it to perch in your house, in your mind, in your life, it can take you over. So when the rude or cruel thing is said – the lambasting, the gay bashing, the hate – I say, “Take it all out of my house!” Those negative words climb into the woodwork and into the furniture, and the next thing you know they’ll be on my skin."
309. "In the 16th century, Niccolò Machiavelli – in an attempt to get back in the good graces of the powerful – wrote a slim volume called The Prince. In that book he showed the powers that be how to control the people. That book is a statement: separate and rule, divide and conquer. That’s five hundred years ago and it still works, because we allow ourselves to be lead around with holes through our noses."
310. "When my bones are stiff and aching, and my feet won’t climb the stair, I will only ask one favor: don’t bring me no rocking chair. When you see me walking, stumbling, don’t study and get it wrong. ‘Cause tired don’t mean lazy and every goodbye ain’t gone. I’m the same person I was back then, a little less hair, a little less chin, a lot less lungs and much less wind. But ain’t I lucky I can still breathe in."
311. "I think that each of us is so much alike, and yet at the same time we are so different, and I have a feeling that if you encountered difficulty, and I with my age encountered the same difficulty, I would respond one way, and you would respond another. Neither would be right or wrong. It’s just that each of us is courageous, and that’s what I encourage, courage, and the courage to see, and the courage to say to oneself what one has seen. Don’t be in denial."
312. "If a human being dreams a great dream, dares to love somebody; if a human being dares to be Martin King, or Mahatma Gandhi, or Mother Theresa, or Malcolm X; if a human being dares to be bigger than the condition into which she or he was born – it means so can you. And so you can try to stretch, stretch, stretch yourself so you can internalize, ‘Homo sum, humani nil a me alienum puto. I am a human being, nothing human can be alien to me.’ That’s one thing I’m learning."
313. "I do not believe that the accident of birth makes people sisters and brothers. It makes them siblings. Gives them mutuality of parentage. Sisterhood and brotherhood are conditions people have to work at. It’s a serious matter. You compromise, you give, you take, you stand firm, and you’re relentless… And it is an investment. Sisterhood means if you happen to be in Burma and I happen to be in San Diego and I’m married to someone who is very jealous and you’re married to somebody who is very possessive, if you call me in the middle of the night, I have to come."
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