Quotes from Maya Angelou

All of childhood's unanswered questions must finally be passed back to the town and answered there. Heroes and bogey men, values and dislikes, are first encountered and labeled in that early environment. In later years they change faces, places and maybe races, tactics, intensities and goals, but beneath those penetrable masks they wear forever the stocking-capped faces of childhood.

Education helps one case cease being intimidated by strange situations.

History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, however, if faced with courage, need not be lived again.

Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told, 'I'm with you kid. Let's go.'

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.

Something made greater by ourselves and in turn that makes us greater.

We really are 15 countries, and it's really remarkable that each of us thinks we represent the real America. The Midwesterner in Kansas, the black American in Durham -- both are certain they are the real American.

You may encounter defeats, but you must not be defeated.

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

What you're supposed to do when you don't like a thing is change it. If you can't change it, change the way you think about it. Don't complain.

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

Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently.

I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it. (Popular misquote of "You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.")

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.

I don't trust people who don't love themselves and tell me, 'I love you.' ... There is an African saying which is: Be careful when a naked person offers you a shirt.

I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better.

Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.

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

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

You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.

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 of you.

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.

Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud.

You alone are enough. You have nothing to prove to anybody.