Quotes from Maya Angelou

white illogical hate and Black lack of power.

Then one day he said he had to get back to California. I was relieved. My world was going to be emptier and dryer, but the agony of having him intrude into every private second would be gone. And the silent threat that had hung in the air since his arrival, the threat of his leaving someday, would be gone. I wouldn't have to wonder whether I loved him or not, or have to answer "Does Daddy's baby want to go to California with Daddy?

Mother's beauty made her powerful and her power made her unflinchingly honest.

Knowing Momma, I knew that I never knew Momma.

They never hesitated to hold up their hands in response to a teacher's question; even when they were wrong they were wrong aggressively, while I had to be certain about all my facts before I dared to call attention to myself.

I have learnt that I still have lot to learn.

Ivonne said, You know white people are strange. I don't even know if they know why they do things. Ivonne had grown up in a small Mississippi town, and I, in a smaller town in Arkansas. Whites were as constant in our history as the seasons and as unfamiliar as affluence.

I learned that to be charitable with gestures and words can bring enormous joy and repair injured feelings.

Al final, todas las preguntas infantiles sin respuesta deben transmitirse al pueblo y en él responderse. En ese primer ambiente nos encontramos por primera vez con los héroes y los fantasmas, los valores y las antipatías, y los calificamos.

I read more than ever, and wished my soul that I had been born a boy. Horatio Alger was the greatest writer in the world. His heroes were always good, always won, and were always boys. I could have developed the first two virtues, but becoming a boy was sure to be difficult, if not impossible.

His accent was delicious. A result of British deliberateness changed by the rhythm of an African tongue and the grace of African lips. I moved away after smiling, needing to sit apart and collect myself. I had not met such a man.

Lighting: a hundred Watts Detroit, Newark and New York Screeching nerves, exploding minds lives tied to a policeman's whistle a welfare worker's doorbell finger

I was liked, and what a difference it made. I was respected not as Mrs. Henderson's grandchild or Bailey's sister but for just being Marguerite Johnson.

She was stimulating instead of intimidating.

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.

Why should I be afraid of you?' He was still laughing. He said 'Maybe you think I'll think you are a missionary and I'll eat you.' I said 'I don't think that anyway. If more Africans had eaten more missionaries, the continent would be in better shape.

I came to understand that I can never forget where I came from. My soul should always look back and wonder at the mountains I had climbed and the rivers I had forged and the challenges which still await down the road. I am strengthened by that knowledge

You may not be able to control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them

All I cared about was that she had made tea cookies for me and read to me from her favorite book. It was enough to prove that she liked me.

Ella era Vivian Baxter Jackson: con la esperanza de lo mejor, preparada para lo peor e incapaz de sorprenderse por lo que no fuera ni una cosa ni la otra.

The unquestioning acceptance by my peers had dislodged the familiar insecurity.

Dijo que siempre debía ser intolerante con la ignorancia, pero comprensiva con la incultura, y que ciertas personas, que no podían ir a la escuela, eran más instruidas e incluso más inteligentes que los profesores de universidad.

We must insist that the men and women who expect to lead us recognize the true desires of those who are being led.

I have waited toes curled, hat rolled heart and genitals in hand on the back porches of forever in the kitchens and fields of rejections on the cold marble steps of America's White Out-House in the drop seats of buses and the open flies of war