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Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou Quotes

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Famous Maya Angelou Quotes

“I've learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage and tangled Christmas tree lights. I've learned that making a 'living' is not the same thing as 'making a life'. I've learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision. 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 some things back.”

WayNeedsHeartPersonsHandsLightAbleThreeLostDecisionTreeYogaHandleI've LearnedI Have LearnedThree ThingsRainyRainy DayOpen HeartTangledRight DecisionThings I've LearnedCatchersChristmas TreeLuggageMaking A LivingMake The Right Decision
Author:Maya Angelou
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“I am grateful to have been loved and to be loved now and to be able to love, because that liberates. Love liberates. It doesn't just hold - that's ego. Love liberates. It doesn't bind. Love says, 'I love you. I love you if you're in China. I love you if you're across town. I love you if you're in Harlem. I love you. I would like to be near you. I'd like to have your arms around me. I'd like to hear your voice in my ear. But that's not possible now, so I love you. Go.'”

IfsHas BeensAbleVoiceLove IsInspiringCompassionLove YouArmsEgoEarsTownsGratefulChinaThoughtfulLoving LifeSay I Love YouHarlemI Am Grateful
Author:Maya Angelou
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“To describe my mother would be to write about a hurricane in its perfect power. Or the climbing, falling colors of a rainbow.”

WritingInspirationWould BeMotherFallPerfectColorMomMy MomMotherhoodClimbingRainbowMothers DayHurricanesBeing A MomBeing A MotherMotheringMother DaughterMother And DaughterHappy Mothers DayBest MotherInspirational MothersMother ProverbsMothers Day InspirationalInspirational MotherhoodGood Happy Mothers DayInspiring MotherhoodMother FlowerFunny MotherMom Knows BestInspirational MomYoung MotherJoys Of MotherhoodGood Mothers Day CardsMothers Day Cards
Book:The Collected Autobiographies of Maya Angelou
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“We are all creative, but by the time we are three of four years old, someone has knocked the creativity out of us. Some people shut up the kids who start to tell stories. Kids dance in their cribs, but someone will insist they sit still. By the time the creative people are ten or twelve, they want to be like everyone else.”

PeopleWantYearsStillsStoriesKidsCultureThreeJusticeCreativityCreativeFourTenDiversitySocial JusticeFour YearsTwelveShut UpCreative People
Author:Maya Angelou
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“The white American man makes the white American woman maybe not superfluous but just a little kind of decoration. Not really important to turning around the wheels of the state. Well the black American woman has never been able to feel that way. No black American man at any time in our history in the United States has been able to feel that he didn't need that black woman right against him, shoulder to shoulder-in that cotton field, on the auction block, in the ghetto, wherever.”

MenWayNeedsFeelsWellsKindLittlesHas BeensImportantStatesAbleCultureBlackJusticeWhiteUnitedHistoryUnited StatesFieldsDiversitySocial JusticeShouldersBlockWheelsBlack WomenGhettoCottonSuperfluousDecorationAmerican WomanAuctionsWomen RightCotton Fields
Author:Maya Angelou
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“...We may encounter many defeats, but we must not be defeated. That sounds goody two-shoes, I know, but I believe that a diamond is the result of extreme pressure and time. Less time is crystal. Less than that is coal. Less than that is fossilized leaves. Less than that it's just plain dirt. In all my work, in the movies I write, the lyrics the poetry, the prose, the essays, I am saying that we may encounter many defeats - maybe it's imperative that we encounter the defeats - but we are much stronger than we appear to be and maybe much better than we allow ourselves to be.”

KnowsWritingBelieveMayTwoMotivationalI BelieveSoundResultsDeterminationStrongerPressureShoesDefeatExtremesEncountersProseDiamondDefeatedDirtCoalEssaysImperativesCrystalsGoody Two Shoes
Author:Maya Angelou
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“Since time is the one immaterial object which we cannot influence - neither speed up nor slow down, add to nor diminish - it is an imponderably valuable gift. Each of us has a few minutes a day or a few hours a week which we could donate to an old folks home or a children's hospital ward. The elderly whose pillows we plump or whose water pitchers we refill may or may not thank us for our gift, but the gift is upholding the foundation of the universe.”

MayChildrenWarHomeTimeUniverseWaterHoursWeekInfluenceMinutesObjectsFoundationAddFolksValuableSpeedHospitalsTime ManagementDiminishSlow DownElderlyPillowPitcherDonateRefillsThank UFolks Home
Book:Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now
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“I look at some of the great novelists, and I think the reason they are great is that they're telling the truth. The fact is they're using made-up names, made-up people, made-up places, and made-up times, but they're telling the truth about the human being- what we are capable of, what makes us lose, laugh, weep, fall down, and gnash our teeth and wring our hands and kill each other and love each other.”

PeopleThinkingHumansLooksMadeReasonFactsHandsFallNamesLosesHuman BeingsInspiringLaughingCapableAnd LoveDown AndTeethNovelistsThoughtfulTelling The TruthFalling DownLove Each OtherLoving LifeThoughts On Life
Author:Maya Angelou
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“I would say you might encounter many defeats but you must never be defeated, ever. In fact, it might even be necessary to confront defeat. It might be necessary, to get over it, all the way through it, and go on. I would teach her to laugh a lot. Laugh a lot at the - and the silliest things and be very, very serious. I'd teach her to love life, I can bet you that.”

WayI CanFactsMightInspiringTeachLaughingSeriousGoes OnDefeatEncountersThoughtfulLove LifeOver ItDefeatedGet OverLoving LifeThoughts On Life
Author:Maya Angelou
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“I do not believe that the accident of birth makes people sisters and brothers. It makes them siblings. Gives them mutuality of parentage. Sisterhood and brotherhood are conditions people have to work at. It's a serious matter. You compromise, you give, you take, you stand firm, and you're relentless...And it is an investment. Sisterhood means if you happen to be in Burma and I happen to be in San Diego and I'm married to someone who is very jealous and you're married to somebody who is very possessive, if you call me in the middle of the night, I have to come.”

PeopleIfsGivingBelieveMeanMatterHappensNightHumanityMiddleConditionsSeriousBrotherBirthMarriedInvestmentAccidentsCompromiseFirmCall MeJealousBrotherhoodBrothers And SistersSiblingRelentlessSisterhoodMiddle Of The NightPossessiveStand FirmBurmaSan Diego
Author:Maya Angelou
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“Though we are many, each of us is achingly alone, piercingly alone. Only when we confess our confusion can we remember that he was a gift to us and we did have him. He came to us from the creator, trailing creativity in abundance. Despite the anguish, his life was sheathed in mother love, family love, and survived and did more than that. He thrived with passion and compassion, humor and style. We had him whether we know who he was or did not know, he was ours and we were his.”

KnowsRememberMotherPassionCompassionCreativityStyleCreatorConfusionDespiteAbundanceSurvivedAnguishFamily LoveMother Love
Author:Maya Angelou
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“A bizarre sensation pervades a relationship of pretense. No truth seems true. A simple morning's greeting and response appear loaded with innuendo and fraught with implications. Each nicety becomes more sterile and each withdrawal more permanent.”

LoveSeemsTruthSimpleMorningResponseSimplicityPermanentSensationsBizarreImplicationsPretenseLoadedWithdrawalGreetingsInnuendoNiceties
Book:The Collected Autobiographies of Maya Angelou
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“When asked how she knows when her writing is where she wants it to be: "I know when it's the best I can do. It may not be the best there is. Another writer may do it much better. But I know when it's the best I can do. I know that one of the great arts that the writer develops is the art of saying, 'No. No, I'm finished. Bye.' And leaving it alone. I will not write it into the ground. I will not write the life out of it. I won't do that."”

KnowsWantWritingMayArtI CanCan DoLeavingFinishedLife ChangingBeing The BestGreat ArtByeSaying NoI Can Do It
Author:Maya Angelou
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