Maya Angelou Quotes

Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud.

— 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.

— Maya Angelou

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.

— Maya Angelou

If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude.

— Maya Angelou

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.

— Maya Angelou

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.

— Maya Angelou

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

— Maya Angelou

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

— Maya Angelou

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.

— Maya Angelou

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.

— Maya Angelou

A wise woman wishes to be no one's enemy; a wise woman refuses to be anyone's victim.

— Maya Angelou

A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.

— Maya Angelou

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.

— Maya Angelou

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.'

— Maya Angelou

If you have only one smile in you give it to the people you love.

— Maya Angelou

Nothing will work unless you do.

— Maya Angelou

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.

— Maya Angelou

The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.

— Maya Angelou

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.

— Maya Angelou

I have a son, who is my heart. A wonderful young man, daring and loving and strong and kind.

— Maya Angelou

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

— Maya Angelou

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.

— Maya Angelou

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

— Maya Angelou

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.

— Maya Angelou

I'm convinced of this: Good done anywhere is good done everywhere. For a change, start by speaking to people rather than walking by them like they're stones that don't matter. As long as you're breathing, it's never too late to do some good.

— Maya Angelou