Maya Angelou
American poet, memoirist, civil rights activist, and one of the defining literary voices of the late twentieth century. Born in 1928 in St. Louis, she lived through years of mute silence after childhood trauma, then through dancing, singing, journalism, and revolutionary work — corresponding with Malcolm X in Ghana, working on the Selma to Montgomery March with King — before her seven-volume autobiography (beginning with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings in 1969) made her one of the most-read American writers. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2010, recited On the Pulse of Morning at Bill Clinton's inauguration in 1993, and produced poetry — Phenomenal Woman, Still I Rise — that has become contemporary scripture for several generations of readers. She died in 2014 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
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Quotes by Maya Angelou
118 quotes“Up from a past that's rooted in pain, I rise.”
“I am the dream and the hope of the slave.”
“I rise. I rise. I rise.”
“Have enough courage to start and enough heart to finish.”
“Most plain girls are virtuous because of the scarcity of opportunity to be otherwise.”
“You should be angry. You must not be bitter. Anger is like fire. It burns it all clean. Bitterness is the same as cancer.”
“Use anger like a force of fire to clean out the wrong.”
“In the end, the words of your friends and family will fade. Your own words you will carry.”
“Love liberates. It does not bind.”
“Love is liberating. Even if the love is not returned.”
“Be a rainbow in another person's cloud.”
“Develop enough courage so that you can stand up for yourself and then stand up for somebody else.”
“Words are things, I'm convinced.”
“You must be careful what kind of language you keep around your house.”
“Independence is a heady draft, and if you drink it in your youth, it can have the same effect on the brain as young wine.”
“The first time someone shows you who they are, believe them.”
“There is no greater gift than the gift of a willing listener.”
“Whining is not only graceless, but can be dangerous. It can alert a brute that a victim is in the neighborhood.”
“Sister, I'm sorry. Sister, I love you. These are the two strongest sentences in any language.”
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