220 Maya Angelou Quotes About Love, Life, Women And Success

Top 20 Maya Angelou Quotes To Inspire You

1. “Nothing will work unless you do.”– Maya Angelou

   

2. “Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.”– Maya Angelou
3. “Let nothing dim the light that shines from within.”― Maya Angelou
4. “If someone shows you who they really are, believe them.”– Maya Angelou

   

5. “You alone are enough. You have nothing to prove to anybody.”– Maya Angelou
6. “We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.”– Maya Angelou

   

7. “Never make someone a priority when all you are to them is an option.”– Maya Angelou
8. “I’ve learned that making a living is not the same thing as making a life.” – Maya Angelou
9. “Hate, it has caused a lot of problems in the world, but has not solved one yet.”– Maya Angelou

   

10. “It’s one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself: to forgive. Forgive everybody.”– Maya Angelou
11. “You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.”– Maya Angelou
12. “If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.”– Maya Angelou
13. “If you’re going to live, leave a legacy. Make a mark on the world that can’t be erased.”– Maya Angelou
14. “If you’re always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be.”– Maya Angelou

    

15. “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”– Maya Angelou
16. “No matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow.”– Maya Angelou
17. “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

    

18. “Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take but by the moments that take your breath away.”– Maya Angelou

    

19. “You may shoot me with your words, You may cut me with your eyes, You may kill me with your hatefulness, But still, like air, I’ll rise.”– Maya Angelou

    

20. “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

    

Maya Angelou Quotes About Love

1. “Love is like a virus. It can happen to anybody at any time.” – Maya Angelou

   

2. “To those who have given up on love: I say, “Trust life a little bit”.– Maya Angelou
3. “I know for sure that loves saves me and that it is here to save us all.” – Maya Angelou
4. “You can only become truly accomplished at something you love.” – Maya Angelou
5. “If we lose love and self-respect for each other, this is how we finally die.” – Maya Angelou
6. “I am grateful to have been loved and to be loved now and to be able to love.” – Maya Angelou
7. “Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time.” – Maya Angelou
8. “Loving someone liberates the lover as well as the beloved. And that kind of love comes with age.” – Maya Angelou
9. “If you have only one smile in you give it to the people you love.” – Maya Angelou
10. “If you happen to fall in love with someone in another race, it’s more difficult, because you have to translate yourself.” – Maya Angelou
11. “If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded.” – Maya Angelou
12. I know for sure that loves saves me and that it is here to save us all. – Maya Angelou
13. “Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.” – Maya Angelou
14. “Suddenly we see that love costs all we are, and will ever be. Yet it is only love which sets us free.” – Maya Angelou
15. “When we find someone who is brave, fun, intelligent, and loving, we have to thank the universe.” – Maya Angelou
16. “If you want to liberate someone, love them. Not be in love with them – that’s dangerous.” – Maya Angelou
17. “I’ve learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision.” – Maya Angelou
18. “I had to trust life, since I was young enough to believe that life loved the person who dared to live it.”― Maya Angelou
19. “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
20. “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
21. “First best is falling in love. Second best is being in love. Least best is falling out of love. But any of it is better than never having been in love.” – Maya Angelou
22. “I believe that people want the scent of love, more than anything else. And I don’t mean sentimentality, I don’t mean mush. I mean that idea, that human beings are more alike than we are different.” – Maya Angelou
23. “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
24. “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
25. “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
26. “What I really would like said about me is that I dared to love. By love, I mean that condition in the human spirit so profound it encourages us to develop courage and build bridges, and then to trust those bridges and cross the bridges in attempts to reach other human beings.” – Maya Angelou
27. “You can never be great at anything unless you love it. Not be in love with it, but love the thing, admire the thing. And it seems that if you love the thing, and you don’t just want to possess it, it will find you. But if you’re in love with the thing, it may run like hell away from you.” – Maya Angelou
28. “I do not trust people who don’t love themselves and yet tell me, ‘I love you.’ There is an African saying which is: Be careful when a naked person offers you a shirt.” ― Maya Angelou
29. “By love I don’t mean indulgence. I do not mean sentimentality. And in this instance, I don’t even mean romance. I mean that condition that allowed humans to dream of God. That condition that allowed the “dumb” to write spirituals and Russian songs and Irish lilts. That is love, and it’s so much larger than anything I can conceive.” – Maya Angelou

Famous Maya Angelou Quotes About Life

In remembrance of her incredible legacy left behind, read through some of Angelou’s most inspiring and uplifting quotes about the truth of life, and the lessons that one learns.

1. “Life loves the liver of it.” – Maya Angelou
2. “We are only as blind as we want to be.” – Maya Angelou
3. “We need much less than we think we need.” – Maya Angelou
4. “Live as though life was created for you.” – Maya Angelou

   

5. “I’ve learned that life sometimes gives you a second chance.” – Maya Angelou
6. “There is a very fine line between loving life and being greedy for it.” – Maya Angelou
7. “Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told, ‘I’m with you kid. Let’s go’.” – Maya Angelou
8. “We are here to love each other. That is why you are alive. That is what life is for.” – Maya Angelou
9. “Life is pure adventure, and the sooner we realize that, the quicker we will be able to treat life as art. – Maya Angelou
10. “Most people don’t grow up. Most people age. They find parking spaces, honor their credit cards, get married, have children, and call that maturity. What that is, is aging.” – Maya Angelou
11. “I encourage courtesy. To accept nothing less than courtesy, and to give nothing less than courtesy.” – Maya Angelou
12. “We spend precious hours fearing the inevitable. It would be wise to use that time adoring our families, cherishing our friends and living our lives.” – Maya Angelou
13. “I think a hero is any person really intent on making this a better place for all people.” – Maya Angelou
14. “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
15. “We can be better, we can be wiser, we can be more kind. Yes we have to change. We have to grow up and stop acting like 10 years old. Yes there is much to do, much to see, much to go into.” – Maya Angelou
16. “I believe in living a poetic life, an art full life. Everything we do from the way we raise our children to the way we welcome our friends is part of a large canvas we are creating.” – Maya Angelou
17. “If we live long enough, we may even get over war. I imagine a time when somebody will mention the word war and everyone in the room will start to laugh. And what do you mean war?” – Maya Angelou

Short Quotes By Maya Angelou

These wise and deep one-liners, short quotes, thoughts by Maya Angelou are perfect for your Instagram captions, WhatsApp status, Insta bio, sloagsn, posters, mantra, and more to spread some motivation.

1. “Effective action is always unjust.”― Maya Angelou
2. “Whining is just unbecoming.”― Maya Angelou
3. “I know why the caged bird sings.”― Maya Angelou
4. “Everybody is worth everything.”― Maya Angelou
5. “The needs of society determine its ethics.”― Maya Angelou
6. “All great achievements require time.”― Maya Angelou

   

7. “Achievement brings its own anticlimax.”― Maya Angelou
8. “Your belief and your work will speak for you.”― Maya Angelou
9. “Determine to live life with flair and laughter.”― Maya Angelou
10. “We need much less than we think we need.”― Maya Angelou
11. “The honorary duty of a human being is to love.”― Maya Angelou
12. “When you learn, teach, when you get, give.”― Maya Angelou
13. “Surviving is important. Thriving is elegant.”― Maya Angelou
14. “I believe that every person is born with talent.”― Maya Angelou
15. “If someone shows you who they really are, believe them.”― Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou’s Quotes About Women And Feminism

1. “My mother raised me, and then freed me.”― Maya Angelo
2. “I became the kind of parent my mother was to me.”― Maya Angelou
3. “How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!”― Maya Angelou
4. “A wise woman wishes to be no one’s enemy; a wise woman refuses to be anyone’s victim.”― Maya Angelou
5. “I am grateful to be a woman. I must have done something great in another life.”― Maya Angelou
6. “The wise woman thinks twice and speaks once or, better yet, does not speak at all.”― Maya Angelou
7. “Most plain girls are virtuous because of the scarcity of opportunity to be otherwise.”― Maya Angelou
8. “A woman’s heart should be so hidden in God that a man has to seek Him just to find her.”― Maya Angelou
9. “I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life’s a bitch. You’ve got to go out and kick ass.”― Maya Angelou
10. “Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for all women.”― Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou Quotes

1. “Encouragement to all women is – let us try to offer help before we have to offer therapy. That is to say, let’s see if we can’t prevent being ill by trying to offer a love of prevention before illness.”― Maya Angelou
2. “The woman who truly intends to live a good life is already living phenomenally since intent is part of the achievement.”― Maya Angelou
3. “I would like to be known as an intelligent woman, a courageous woman, a loving woman, a woman who teaches by being.” – Maya Angelou
4. “Courage allows the successful woman to fail – and to learn powerful lessons from the failure – so that in the end, she didn’t fail at all.”― Maya Angelou
5. “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
6. “Stepping onto a brand-new path is difficult, but not more difficult than remaining in a situation, which is not nurturing to the whole woman.”― Maya Angelou
7. “When teachers or people in authority put me down or in one way or another tried to make me feel less than equal to what they thought I should be – my mother was on my side. It was amazing.”― Maya Angelou
8. “A man or woman who sees other people as whole and prepared and accords them respect and the same rights has arranged his or her own allies.”― Maya Angelou
9. “I am a woman phenomenally, phenomenal woman that is your grandmother, that is your mother, that is your sister, that is you and that is me.”― Maya Angelou
10. “The sadness of the women’s movement is that they don’t allow the necessity of love. See, I don’t personally trust any revolution where love is not allowed.”― Maya Angelou

Insightful Maya Angelou Quotes on Success & Courage

1. “All great achievements require time.”– Maya Angelou
2. “Achievement brings its own anticlimax.”– Maya Angelou
3. “Success is loving life and daring to live it.” – Maya Angelou
4. “If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities.”
5. “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”― Maya Angelou
6. “Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.”― Maya Angelou
7. “At 50, I began to know who I was. It was like waking up to myself.” – Maya Angelou
8. “I think we all have empathy. We may not have enough courage to display it.”― Maya Angelou
9. “If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded.”― Maya Angelou
10. “Nothing succeeds like success. Get a little success, and then just get a little more.”― Maya Angelou

Best Quotes Of Maya Angelou

1. “I am not competing with anyone other than myself. I want to be excellent at whatever I do.”― Maya Angelou
2. “The only way you can be a mark is if you want something for nothing. If you’re greedy, you’re set up.”― Maya Angelou
3. “You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.”― Maya Angelou
4. “If I’m here, I’ll be trying to be a better human being, a better writer, a better friend and a better beloved.”― Maya Angelou
5. “Those who have something to say accept the fact that that’s lonely. One already knows that there will be adversaries.”― Maya Angelou
6. “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
7. “We may encounter many defeats, but we must not be defeated. It may even be necessary to encounter the defeat, so that we can know who we are.”― Maya Angelou
8. “I’ve learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision.”― Maya Angelou
9. “To develop courage you have to start developing courage as you do any other muscle. You have to start with small things and build it up.”― Maya Angelou
10. “In order to win, we pay with energy and effort and discipline. If we lose, we pay in disappointment, discontent, and lack of fulfillment.”― Maya Angelou
11. “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
12. “Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage you can’t practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.” – Maya Angelou
13. “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
14. “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
15. “If I am going to do the most difficult and frightening thing – dying – is it possible that I could do some difficult and impossible things that are good?”― Maya Angelou
16. “You have to deal with what you encounter. But you must not be reduced. And so a way not to be reduced is don’t whine! Don’t let the incidents which take place in life bring you low.”― Maya Angelou

Inspirational Maya Angelou Quotes About Change

1. “I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.”― Maya Angelou
2. “The need for change bulldozed a road down the center of my mind.”― Maya Angelou
3. “If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.”― Maya Angelou
4. “We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.”― Maya Angelou
5. “There are those who say that poets should use her and his art to change the world. I’d agree with that, but I think everybody should do that. I think the chef and the baker and the candlestick maker – I think everybody should be hoping to make it a better world.”― Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou Quotes About Education And Learning

Though she never went to college herself, she was a college professor and held 30 honorary degrees. In addition to learning from what she did and wrote, educators can be inspired from what she said.

1. “I’ve learned that I still have a lot to learn.” – Maya Angelou
2. “There’s a world of difference between truth and facts. Facts can obscure the truth.” – Maya Angelou
3. “I do hope that young men and women will start to think for themselves and start to take responsibility for their own thoughts.” – Maya Angelou
4. “I think we have systematically and critically harmed ourselves and many young people by advising them not to try things.” – Maya Angelou
5. “It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.”” – Maya Angelou
6. “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.” – Maya Angelou
7. “Each child belongs to all of us and they will bring us a tomorrow in direct relation to the responsibility we have shown to them.” – Maya Angelou
8. “If I’m going to a new country, I try to learn something about the language and the culture, so I don’t just go bumbling over things.” – Maya Angelou
9. “The real difficulty is to overcome how you think about yourself. If we don’t have that we never grow, we never learn, and sure as hell we should never teach.” – Maya Angelou
10. “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

Inspirational Maya Angelou Quotes About Family

1. “A mother’s love liberates.” – Maya Angelou
2. “I sustain myself with the love of family.” – Maya Angelou
3. “If I have a monument in this world, it is my son.” – Maya Angelou
4. “My pride had been starched by a family who assumed unlimited authority in its own affairs.” – Maya Angelou
5. “I’ve learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you’ll miss them when they’re gone from your life.” – Maya Angelou
6. Only equals make friends, every other relationship is contrived and off balance.” — Maya Angelou
7. “Home is a refuge not only from the world, but a refuge from my worries, my troubles, my concerns.” – Maya Angelou
8. “The love of the family, the love of one person can heal. It heals the scars left by a larger society. A massive, powerful society.” – Maya Angelou
9. “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.” – Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou Quotes on Kindness, Forgiveness And Hope

1. “Faith is the evidence of the unseen.”― Maya Angelou
2. “I hope you always find a reason to smile.”― Maya Angelou
3. “It’s one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself, to forgive. Forgive everybody.” – Maya Angelou
4. “I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver. – Maya Angelou
5. “Forgive yourself for not knowing what you didn’t know before you learned it.”― Maya Angelou
6. “Take a day to heal from the lies you’ve told yourself and the ones that have been told to you.”― Maya Angelou
7. “My people couldn’t have survived slavery without having hope that it would get better.” – Maya Angelou
8. “My wish for you is that you continue. Continue to be who and how you are, to astonish a mean world with your acts of kindness.” – Maya Angelou
9. “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
10. “Seek patience and passion in equal amounts. Patience alone will not build the temple. Passion alone will destroy its walls.” – Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou’s Quotes About Racism, History, Equality, And Blacks

1. “I have great respect for the past.” – Maya Angelou
2. “I am overwhelmed by the grace and persistence of my people.” – Maya Angelou
3. “Don’t hesitate to learn the most painful aspects of our history, understand it.” – Maya Angelou
4. “The problem I have with haters is that they see my glory, but they don’t know my story.” – Maya Angelou
5. “History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.” – Maya Angelou
6. “It is imperative that young white men and women study the black American history. It is imperative that blacks and whites study the Asian American history.” – Maya Angelou
7. “I’m a descendant of someone bought and sold, and brought in 1619 in what was to become the United States.” – Maya Angelou
8. “As far as I knew white women were never lonely, except in books. White men adored them, Black men desired them and Black women worked for them.” – Maya Angelou
9. “I like to speak on matters which matter to human beings, and almost everything matters to human beings.” – Maya Angelou
10. “There’s something beautiful about the fact that Obama was not just elected, but elected decisively across racial, and socio-economic and cultural groups and that we all celebrated in his win.” – Maya Angelou
11. “It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.” – Maya Angelou
12. “We cannot change the past, but we can change our attitude toward it. Uproot guilt and plant forgiveness. Tear out arrogance and seed humility. Exchange love for hate – thereby, making the present comfortable and the future promising.” – Maya Angelou
    

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13. “For Africa to me… is more than a glamorous fact. It is a historical truth. No man can know where he is going unless he knows exactly where he has been and exactly how he arrived at his present place.” – Maya Angelou

Deep And Thought Provoking Maya Angelou Sayings

1. “Give yourself time just to be with yourself.” – Maya Angelou
2. “The only way out of something is all the way through it.”― Maya Angelou
3. “You can’t get too high for somebody to bring you down.”― Maya Angelou
4. “I did then what I knew best, when I knew better, I did better.”― Maya Angelou
5. “We must be warriors in the struggle against ignorance.” – Maya Angelou
6. “A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.” – Maya Angelou
7. “The desire to reach for the stars is ambitious. The desire to reach hearts is wise.”-  Maya Angelou
8. “Believe people when they tell you who they are. They know themselves better than you.”― Maya Angelou
9. “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
10. “I believe that each of us comes from the Creator trailing wisps of glory.” – Maya Angelou
11. “I wrote some of the worst poetry west from the Mississippi River, but I wrote. And I finally sometimes got it right.” – Maya Angelou

Words of Wisdom By Maya Angelou

1. “I’ve had rainbows in my clouds.”― Maya Angelou
2. “Living well is an art which can be developed.”― Maya Angelou
3. “Their faces shone with the delight of their souls.”― Maya Angelou
4. “In diversity there is beauty and there is strength.”― Maya Angelou
5. “I created myself. I have taught myself so much.” – Maya Angelou
6. “We begin to stop in order simply to begin again.” ― Maya Angelou
7. “I have respect for the past, but I’m a person of the moment.” – Maya Angelou
8. “It’s hard to make the prettiest clothes fit a miserable man.” ― Maya Angelou
9. “This is a wonderful day, I have never seen this one before.” ― Maya Angelou
10. “I learned that a friend may be waiting behind a stranger’s face.” ― Maya Angelou
11. “The real difficulty is to overcome how you think about yourself.”― Maya Angelou
12. “Talent is like electricity. We don’t understand electricity. We use it.” ― Maya Angelou
13. “If I am not good to myself, how can I expect anyone else to be good to me?” – Maya Angelou
14. “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

More About Maya Angelou

• Name at birth: Marguerite Annie Johnson
• Place: St. Louis, Missouri, US
• April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014 (aged 86)
• Occupation: Writer, poet, civil rights, activist
• More Maya Angelou facts (Wikipedia page)

More Inspirational Quotes

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