Quotes By Maya Angelou

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.

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.

The fact that the adult American Negro female emerges a formidable character is often met with amazement, distaste and even belligerance. It is seldom accepted as an inevitable outcome of the struggle won by survivors, and deserves respect if not enthusiastic acceptance.

Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible.

All great achievements require time.

If we lose love and self respect for each other, this is how we finally die.

Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean.

There is a very fine line between loving life and being greedy for it.

The idea is to write it so that people hear it and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the heart.

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.

How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!

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.

I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver.

While the rest of the world has been improving technology, Ghana has been improving the quality of man's humanity to man.

I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself.

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.

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.

Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with deeper meaning.

If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities.

When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.

We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.

Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at it destination full of hope.

The need for change bulldozed a road down the center of my mind.

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

Some critics will write 'Maya Angelou is a natural writer' - which is right after being a natural heart surgeon.