Maya Angelou (Marguerite Annie Johnson) was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on April 4, 1928, the second child of Bailey Johnson, a doorman, and Navy dietitian. She joined Georgia in 1972, shortly after writing about an interracial romance in 1975, but made her official directorial debut in 70 with Down in the Delta (1998). The film is about a mother who sends her children away from Chicago to live with family in rural Mississippi to learn about their roots. She was a famous American writer, singer, and social activist. Her father Bailey Johnson was a dentist in the Navy, while her mother Vivian Johnson was a nurse. Maya Angelou was a writer and poet who worked with Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X during the Civil Rights Movement. Maya’s life passed through difficult struggles. Maya was just three years old when her parents got divorced and she was sent to her grandmother. In this post, you will find a collection of 140+ quotes by Maya Angelou that will leave you inspired.
Maya Angelou Quotes
- “You can’t get too high for somebody to bring you down.”― Maya Angelou
- “This is a wonderful day. I’ve never seen this one before.”― Maya Angelou
- I believe that every person is born with talent. – Maya Angelou
- “Nothing will work unless you do.” – Maya Angelou
- “All great achievements require time.” – Maya Angelou
- “In diversity there is beauty and there is strength.”― Maya Angelou
- “I created myself. I have taught myself so much.” – Maya Angelou
- “I’m not a writer who teaches. I’m a teacher who writes.” – Maya Angelou
- “Love is like a virus. It can happen to anybody at any time.” – Maya Angelou
- “It’s hard to make the prettiest clothes fit a miserable man.” ― Maya Angelou
- “I have respect for the past, but I’m a person of the moment.” – Maya Angelou
- “Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.” – Maya Angelou
- “I like to have guns around. I don’t like to carry them.” – Maya Angelou
- “Intelligence always had a pornographic influence on me.”― Maya Angelou
- “When you learn, teach. When you get, give.”― Maya Angelou
- “Their faces shone with the delight of their souls.”― Maya Angelou
- “Living well is an art which can be developed.”― Maya Angelou
- “I’ve had rainbows in my clouds.”― Maya Angelou
- “This is a wonderful day, I have never seen this one before.” ― Maya Angelou
- “You alone are enough. You have nothing to prove to anybody.” ― Maya Angelou
- “We begin to stop in order simply to begin again.” ― Maya Angelou
- “There is a very fine line between loving life and being greedy for it.”- Maya Angelou
- “If you have only one smile in you give it to the people you love.” – Maya Angelou
- “I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels.” – Maya Angelou

“We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.”
– MAYA ANGELOU
- “It was a little light, but she aimed it directly at the gloom of ignorance.”― Maya Angelou
- “Talent is like electricity. We don’t understand electricity. We use it.” ― Maya Angelou
- “I learned that a friend may be waiting behind a stranger’s face.” ― Maya Angelou
- “There is a true yearning to respond to the singing river and wise rock.”― Maya Angelou
- “The need for change bulldozed a road down the center of my mind.” ― Maya Angelou
- Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told: ‘I’m with you kid. Let’s go.’ – Maya Angelou
- At 50, I began to know who I was. It was like waking up to myself. – Maya Angelou
- “I am grateful to have been loved and to be loved now and to be able to love.” – Maya Angelou
- “I swear to God, I rather you have a good mind than a cute behind.”― Maya Angelou
- “Success is liking yourself, liking what you do and liking how you do it.” ― Maya Angelou
- Never make someone a priority when all you are to them is an option. – Maya Angelou
- I’ve learned that I still have a lot to learn. – Maya Angelou
- “Do the best you can do till you know better. Then, when you know better, do better.” ― Maya Angelou
- “If I am not good to myself, how can I expect anyone else to be good to me?” – Maya Angelou
- “If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded.” – Maya Angelou
- “It’s hard because people think they have something to lose and the truth is they have everything to gain in trying to love somebody.” – Maya Angelou
- “I learned that to be charitable with gestures and words can bring enormous joy and repair injured feelings.” ― Maya Angelou
- “I’m here, and I do my best to be completely centered at the place I’m at, then I go forward to the next place.” – Maya Angelou
- “Peace means when there is conflict, use our common sense and our compassion to consider rest of humanity, our human brothers and sisters.”― 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
- “If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.” – 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
- “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
- “Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.” – Maya Angelou
- “We must insist that the men and women who expect to lead us recognize the true desires of those who are being led.”― Maya Angelou
- “If you must look back, do so forgivingly. If you will look forward, do so prayerfully. But the wisest course would be to be present in the present gratefully.” – Maya Angelou
- “A wise woman wishes to be no one’s enemy; a wise woman refuses to be anyone’s victim.” – Maya Angelou
- “Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with deeper meaning.” – Maya Angelou
- “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.” – 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
- “History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.” – Maya Angelou
- “If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. Don’t complain.” – Maya Angelou
- “Whatever you want to do, if you want to be great at it, you have to love it and be able to make sacrifices for it.” – Maya Angelou
- “It’s one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself, to forgive. Forgive everybody.” – Maya Angelou
- “I work very hard, and I play very hard. I’m grateful for life. And I live it – I believe life loves the liver of it. I live it.” – Maya Angelou
- “Courage is the most important of all virtues, because without courage, you cannot practice any of the other virtues consistently.” ― Maya Angelou
- “I had given up some youth for knowledge, but my gain was more valuable than the loss.” – Maya Angelou

“I like to speak on matters which matter to human beings, and almost everything matters to human beings.”
– Maya Angelou
- “The wise woman thinks twice and speaks once or, better yet, does not speak at all.”― Maya Angelou
- “If you’re always trying to be normal you’ll never know how amazing you can be.”― Maya Angelou
- “Let gratitude be the pillow upon which you kneel to say your nightly prayer. And let faith be the bridge you build to overcome evil and welcome good.” ― Maya Angelou
- “I think a hero is any person really intent on making this a better place for all people.” ― Maya Angelou
- “Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.” ― Maya Angelou
- “Precious jewel, you glow, you shine, reflecting all the good things in the world. Just look at yourself.” ― Maya Angelou
- “I note the obvious differences between each sort and type,but we are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike.” ― Maya Angelou
- “Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean.”― Maya Angelou
- “Take as much time as you need to make up your mind, but once it is made up, step out on your decision like it’s something you want.”― Maya Angelou
- “I learned a long time ago the wisest thing I can do is be on my own side, be an advocate for myself and others like me.” – Maya Angelou
- “I’ve learned that every day you should reach out and touch someone. People love a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back.” – Maya Angelou
- I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver. – Maya Angelou
- We can learn to see each other and see ourselves in each other and recognize that human beings are more alike than we are unalike. – Maya Angelou
- My life has been long, and believing that life loves the liver of it, I have dared to try many things, sometimes trembling, but daring still. – Maya Angelou
- My greatest blessing has been the birth of my son. My next greatest blessing has been my ability to turn people into children of mine. – Maya Angelou
- I love the song ‘I Hope You Dance’ by Lee Ann Womack. I was going to write that song, but someone beat me to it. – Maya Angelou
- In all my work, I try to say, ‘You may be given a load of sour lemons, why not try to make a dozen lemon meringue pies?’ – Maya Angelou
- I know for sure that loves saves me and that it is here to save us all. – Maya Angelou
- Loving someone liberates the lover as well as the beloved. And that kind of love comes with age. – Maya Angelou
- Everyone has at least one story, and each of us is funny if we admit it. You have to admit you’re the funniest person you’ve ever heard of. – 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
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- I wrote some of the worst poetry west from the Mississippi River, but I wrote. And I finally sometimes got it right. – 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
- Courage – you develop courage by doing small things like just as if you wouldn’t want to pick up a 100-pound weight without preparing yourself. – Maya Angelou
- I believe that each of us comes from the Creator trailing wisps of glory. – Maya Angelou
- Nothing succeeds like success. Get a little success, and then just get a little more. – Maya Angelou
- A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song. – Maya Angelou
- Don’t get older just to get wiser. If you get older, you will be wiser, I believe that – if you dare. But get older because it’s fun! – Maya Angelou
- I respect myself and insist upon it from everybody. And because I do it, I then respect everybody, too. – Maya Angelou
- It is a no-fail, incontrovertible reality: If you get, give. If you learn, teach. You can’t do anything with that except do it. – Maya Angelou
- There’s something which impels us to show our inner souls. The more courageous we are, the more we succeed in explaining what we know. – Maya Angelou
- We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty. – Maya Angelou
- Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better. – Maya Angelou
- I am grateful to be a woman. I must have done something great in another life. – Maya Angelou
- Seek patience and passion in equal amounts. Patience alone will not build the temple. Passion alone will destroy its walls. – Maya Angelou
- I’ve learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision. – Maya Angelou
- 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. – Maya Angelou
- When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time. – Maya Angelou
- If you’re always trying to be normal you will never know how amazing you can be. – Maya Angelou
- I did then what I knew best, when I knew better, I did better.”― Maya Angelou
- “Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible…We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.”― Maya Angelou
- “Let nothing dim the light that shines from within.”― Maya Angelou
- “In all my work what I try to say is that as human beings we are more alike than we are unalike.”― Maya Angelou
- “Remember, people will judge you by your actions not your intentions. You may have a heart of gold but so does a hard-boiled egg.”― Maya Angelou
- “I make writing as much a part of my life as I do eating or listening to music.”― Maya Angelou
- “No human being can be more human than another human being. I liberate you from my ignorance.” ― Maya Angelou
- “All great artists draw from the same resource: the human heart, which tells us all that we are more alike than we are unalike.”― Maya Angelou

“Faith is the evidence of the unseen.”
― MAYA ANGELOU
- “All knowledge is spendable currency, depending on the market.”― Maya Angelou
- “Forgive yourself for not knowing what you didn’t know before you learned it.”― Maya Angelou
- “Take a day to heal from the lies you’ve told yourself and the ones that have been told to you.”― Maya Angelou
- “I hope you always find a reason to smile.”― Maya Angelou
- “There is nothing a person can’t do, and there should be nothing a human being didn’t care about. It was the most positive encouragement I could have hoped for.”― Maya Angelou
- “Every day I awaken I am grateful. My intent is to be totally present in that day. And laugh as much as possible.”― Maya Angelou
- “There is nothing quite so tragic as a young cynic, because it means the person has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing.”― Maya Angelou
- “They may have forgotten how badly they treated you, or they may pretend that they have forgotten. But watch: They will come back to you.”― Maya Angelou
- “I looked up the way I was going and back the way I come and since I wasn’t satisfied I stepped off and [found] me a new path.”― Maya Angelou
- “The only way out of something is all the way through it.”― Maya Angelou
- “I had to trust life, since I was young enough to believe that life loved the person who dared to live it.”― Maya Angelou
- “The woman who truly intends to live a good life is already living phenomenally since intent is part of the achievement.”― Maya Angelou
- “I’m happy…I laugh as much as I can and cry when I have to, without apology. I think that’s happy.”― Maya Angelou
- “Always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy.”― Maya Angelou
- “On this platform of peace, we can create a language to translate ourselves to ourselves and to each other.”― Maya Angelou
- “Believe people when they tell you who they are. They know themselves better than you.”― Maya Angelou
- “The real difficulty is to overcome how you think about yourself.”― Maya Angelou
- “Although I had no regrets, I told myself sadly that growing up was not the painless process one would have thought it to be.”― Maya Angelou
- “We must be warriors in the struggle against ignorance.” – Maya Angelou
- “Stand up straight and realize who you are, that you tower over your circumstances. You are a child of God. Stand up straight.” – Maya Angelou
- “You don’t need another person, place or thing to make you whole. God already did that. Your job is to know it.” – Maya Angelou
- “Success is loving life and daring to live it.” – Maya Angelou
- “Develop enough courage so that you can stand up for yourself and then stand up for somebody else.” – Maya Angelou
- “Love life. Engage in it. Give it all you’ve got. Love it with a passion because life truly does give back, many times over, what you put into it.” –Maya Angelou
- “If you’re going to live, leave a legacy. Make a mark on the world that can’t be erased.” – Maya Angelou
- If you’re enjoying these quotes, you’ll love our collection of legacy quotes that will inspire you to start making your mark on the world today.
- “Give yourself time just to be with yourself.” – Maya Angelou
- “I would like to be known as an intelligent woman, a courageous woman, a loving woman, a woman who teaches by being.” – Maya Angelou
- “Live as though life was created for you.” – Maya Angelou
- “If you want what you’re saying heard, then take your time and say it so that the listener will actually hear it. You might save somebody’s life. Your own, first.” – Maya Angelou
- “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” ― Maya Angelou
- I refuse to allow any man-made differences to separate me from any other human beings. Maya Angelou