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Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou Quotes

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Famous Maya Angelou Quotes

“Human beings are more alike than unalike. Whether in Paris, Texas, or Paris, France, we all want to have good jobs where we are needed and respected and paid just a little more than we deserve. We want healthy children, safe streets, to be loved and have the unmitigated gall to accept love. If we are religious, we want a place to perpetuate God. If not, we want a good lecture every once in a while. And everyone wants someplace to party on Saturday nights.”

IfsWantHumansChildrenLittlesJobsNightReligiousHuman BeingsPartyAcceptingStreetsNeededHealthySafeDeservePaidFranceParisTexasSaturdayGood JobLecturesSaturday NightHealthy Children
Author:Maya Angelou
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“Strictly speaking, one cannot legislate love, but what one can do is legislate fairness and justice. If legislation does not prohibit our living side by side, sooner or later your child will fall on the pavement and I'll be the one to pick her up. Or one of my children will not be able to get into the house and you'll have to say, "Stop here until your mom comes here." Legislation affords us the chance to see if we might love each other.”

IfsLoveChildrenDoeMightAbleLawFallHouseSidesCan DoJusticeChanceMomPicksRelationOur ChildrenMy ChildrenYour ChildrenFairnessSooner Or LaterLegislationRace RelationsLove Each OtherYour MomPavement
Author:Maya Angelou
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“We need to remember to teach our children that solitude can be a much-to-be-desired condition. Not only is it acceptable to be alone; at times it is positively to be wished for.....In the silence we listen to ourselves. Then we ask questions of ourselves. We describe ourselves to ourselves, and in the quietude we may even hear the voice of God.”

NeedsMayChildrenRememberAsksVoiceSilenceTeachConditionsSolitudeOur ChildrenAcceptablePositivelyVoice Of God
Author:Maya Angelou
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“Among other things, I'm thinking "I'm a child of God." That's amazing. And "I'm not only a child of God, but God loves me." The hardest part for me is to realize that while God loves me, and I am a child of God, I have to see the bigot and the brute and the rapist, and whether he or she knows it or not, I have to know that that person is a child of God. That is part of the responsibility - and it's hard.”

ThinkingKnowsChildrenPersonsHardRealizingResponsibilityHardestGod LoveBrutesChild Of GodBigotsGod Loves Me
Author:Maya Angelou
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“There are great parents of small children - they keep their little hair in bows - but those parents are not always good parents of young adults. As soon as their children get up to some size, it's "Shut up, sit down, you talk too much, keep your distance, I'll send you to Europe!" My mom was a terrible parent of small children but a great parent of young adults. She'd talk to me as if I had some sense.”

IfsChildrenLittlesYoungParentToo MuchHairMomTerribleAdultsEuropeDistanceYoung AdultSizeMy MomGet UpBowsShut UpTalk To MeSmall ChildGood ParentGreat Parents
Author:Maya Angelou
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“"Baby, you know?" my mother once said to me. "I think you're the greatest woman I've ever met - and I'm not including my mother or Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt in that." She said, "You are very intelligent and you're very kind, and those two qualities do not often go together." Then she went across the street and got in her car, and I went the other way down to the streetcar. I thought, "Suppose she's right. She's intelligent - and she's too mean to lie." You see, a parent has the chance - and maybe the responsibility - to liberate her child. And my mom had liberated me when I was 17.”

ThinkingKnowsWayKindMeanChildrenSaidTwoTogetherLyingMotherParentChanceQualityResponsibilityStreetsCarBabyMomMetsIntelligentIncludingMy MomLiberatedEleanor
Author:Maya Angelou
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“If you want to liberate someone, love them.Not be in love with them - that's dangerous. If you're in love with your children, you're in their lives all the time. Leave them alone! Let them grow and make some mistakes. Tell them, "You can come home. My arms are here - and my mouth is too." When you really love them, you don't want to possess them. You don't say, "I love you and I want you here with me."”

IfsWantChildrenHomeGrowsMistakeLove YouDangerousArmsMouthsOur ChildrenYour ChildrenComing HomeI Want YouOne LoveSay I Love You
Author:Maya Angelou
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“In the fifties, you have your beauty as a treat. I thought that until I hit the sixties.In your sixties, life decides to reward you with certain kinds of profound appreciation, so that people name their children and schools and libraries after you! And you still have your sexuality and your sensuality. If you want your sexuality, you still have it.”

PeopleIfsWantKindChildrenStillsSchoolCertainNamesTreatsProfoundRewardsLibraryAppreciationSexualitySensualitySixty
Author:Maya Angelou
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“I am convinced that most people do not grow up...We marry and dare to have children and call that growing up. I think what we do is mostly grow old. We carry accumulation of years in our bodies, and on our faces, but generally our real selves, the children inside, are innocent and shy as magnolias.”

PeopleThinkingLifeYearsChildrenRealSelfBodyFacesGrowsGrowing UpGrowingDareConvincedInnocentShyAccumulationReal SelfMagnolias
Book:Letter to My Daughter
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“Of all the needs (there are none imaginary) a lonely child has, the one that must be satisfied, if there is going to be hope and a hope of wholeness, is the unshaking need for an unshakable God. My pretty Black brother was my Kingdom Come.”

IfsLifeInspirationalNeedsChildrenGodMotivationalBlackBrotherLonelySatisfiedKingdomsImaginaryWholenessUnshakableKingdom ComeCaged BirdsI Know Why The Caged Bird SingsLonely Child
Book:I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
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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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“What I think it really means is: I'm a teacher. I am a teacher. I teach all the time, as you do and as all of you do-whether we know it or not, whether we take responsibility for it or not. I hold nothing back because I want to see that light go off. I like to see the children say, 'I never thought of that before.' And I think, 'I've got them!'”

ThinkingKnowsWantMeanChildrenLightResponsibilityTeachTeacherTaking ResponsibilityReally Mean
Author:Maya Angelou
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“I always knew from that moment, from the time I found myself at home in that little segregated library in the South, all the way up until I walked up the steps of the New York City library, I always felt, in any town, if I can get to a library, I'll be okay. It really helped me as a child, and that never left me. So I have a special place for every library, in my heart of hearts.”

IfsWayHeartChildrenLittlesI CanMomentsHomeFoundLeftFeltCitiesStepsSpecialNew YorkMy HeartOkayTownsSouthLibraryThat MomentNew York CitySpecial Places
Author:Maya Angelou
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“I believed that there was a God because I was told it by my grandmother and later by other adults. But when I found that I knew not only that there was God but that I was a child of God, when I understood that, when I comprehended that, more than that, when I internalized that, ingested that, I became courageous.”

BelieveChildrenGodChristianFaithFoundJesusBeliefI BelieveReligiousLordCourageUnderstoodAdultsBraveChristian InspirationalAfrican AmericanGod LoveGrandmotherCourageousHave FaithTrust In GodFaith In GodMy GrandmotherBlack WomenGrandmaCommitment To GodChild Of GodConfidence In GodIntimacy With GodServant Of GodGreatness Of GodGod Within UsMighty GodComprehendingPhenomenal WomanI Love God
Author:Maya Angelou
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“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, if I do that well enough, then I'll be able to look after someone else -- the children or the husband or the elderly. But I have to look after myself first. I know that some people think that's being selfish, I think that's being self-full.”

PeopleIfsThinkingKnowsFirstsWellsLooksChildrenLongI CanSelfEnoughAbleSidesCan DoMy OwnHusbandLong TimeSelfishLike MeLong Time AgoElderlyWisestBeing Selfish
Author:Maya Angelou
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“Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him.”

InspirationalNeedsChildrenBookHelpingHappinessFormReadingEducationAttitudeLearningHabitOptimismImportanceLibraryReading BooksContinuingLiteracyGood BookBook ReadingChildren's BooksBooks And ReadingGreat EducationalLibrary BooksReading HabitsOld BooksChildren BookEducation And LiteracyLibraries Books And ReadingReading And LiteracyBook ReadersBooks For KidsLibraries And ReadingSchool LibraryReading AloudReading For KidsGreat ReadingChildren ReadingImportance Of ReadingInspirational ReadingLiteracy And ChildrenLiteracy For ChildrenChildren About ReadingReading Good BooksReading Books To ChildrenGood ReadingReading InspirationalInspiring ReadingInspirational ChildrenReading Teacher
Author:Maya Angelou
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“I would ask every man and every woman who's had the blessing of having children, 'Would you deny your son or your daughter the ecstasy of finding someone to love?' To love someone takes a lot of courage. So how much more is one challenged when the love is of the same sex and the laws say, 'I forbid you from loving this person'?”

MenChildrenPersonsLawAsksSexLove IsSonBlessingFindingsDaughterDenyEvery ManEcstasyLove SomeoneOur DaughterHaving ChildrenYour DaughterYour SonFinding Someone
Author:Maya Angelou
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