Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud.
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Quotes by Maya Angelou
Explore 25 verified and sourced quotes attributed to Maya Angelou. Open any quote for its dedicated page, source details and related topics.
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Selected quotes by Maya Angelou
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.
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.
If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude.
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.
The thing to do, it seems to me, is to prepare yourself so you can be a rainbow in somebody else's cloud. Somebody who may not look like you. May not call God the same name you call God - if they call God at all. I may not dance your dances or speak your language. But be a blessing to somebody. That's what I think.
Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.
You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.
My grandmother took me to church on Sunday all day long, every Sunday into the night. Then Monday evening was the missionary meeting. Tuesday evening was usher board meeting. Wednesday evening was prayer meeting. Thursday evening was visit the sick. Friday evening was choir practice. I mean, and at all those gatherings, we sang.
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.
A wise woman wishes to be no one's enemy; a wise woman refuses to be anyone's victim.
A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.
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.
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.'
If you have only one smile in you give it to the people you love.
Nothing will work unless you do.
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.
The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.
It is impossible to struggle for civil rights, equal rights for blacks, without including whites. Because equal rights, fair play, justice, are all like the air: we all have it, or none of us has it. That is the truth of it.
I have a son, who is my heart. A wonderful young man, daring and loving and strong and kind.
Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible.
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.
Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.
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.
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