Maya Angelou Quotes To Inspire You

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. “You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. ” ― Maya Angelou
5. “If someone shows you who they really are, believe them.”– Maya Angelou

   

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

   

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

    

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

    

16. “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”– Maya Angelou
17. “No matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow.”– Maya Angelou
18. “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

    

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

    

20. “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

    

21. “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. “If we lose love and self-respect for each other, this is how we finally die.” – Maya Angelou
5. “I am grateful to have been loved and to be loved now and to be able to love.” – Maya Angelou
6. “Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time.” – Maya Angelou
7. “If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded.” – Maya Angelou
8. “If you happen to fall in love with someone in another race, it’s more difficult, because you have to translate yourself.” – Maya Angelou
9. “Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.” – Maya Angelou
10. “I’ve learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision.” – 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

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, slogans, 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. “How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!”― Maya Angelou
3. “A wise woman wishes to be no one’s enemy; a wise woman refuses to be anyone’s victim.”― Maya Angelou
4. “I am grateful to be a woman. I must have done something great in another life.”― Maya Angelou
5. “The wise woman thinks twice and speaks once or, better yet, does not speak at all.”― Maya Angelou
6. “A woman’s heart should be so hidden in God that a man has to seek Him just to find her.”― Maya Angelou
7. “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
8. “Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for all women.”― Maya Angelou
9. “The woman who truly intends to live a good life is already living phenomenally since intent is part of the achievement.”― Maya Angelou
10. “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

Insightful Maya Angelou Quotes 

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. “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”― Maya Angelou
5. “Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.”― Maya Angelou
6. “At 50, I began to know who I was. It was like waking up to myself.” – Maya Angelou
7. “I think we all have empathy. We may not have enough courage to display it.”― Maya Angelou
8. “If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded.”― Maya Angelou
9. “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

Maya Angelou Quotes About Education 

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

Maya Angelou Quotes on Kindness

1. “Faith is the evidence of the unseen.”― Maya Angelou
2. “I hope you always find a reason to smile.”― Maya Angelou
3. “I have great respect for the past.” – Maya Angelou
4. “I am overwhelmed by the grace and persistence of my people.” – Maya Angelou
5. “Don’t hesitate to learn the most painful aspects of our history, understand it.” – Maya Angelou
6. “I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver. – Maya Angelou
7. “Forgive yourself for not knowing what you didn’t know before you learned it.”― Maya Angelou
8. “Take a day to heal from the lies you’ve told yourself and the ones that have been told to you.”― Maya Angelou
9. “It’s one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself, to forgive. Forgive everybody.” – Maya Angelou
10. “My people couldn’t have survived slavery without having hope that it would get better.” – Maya Angelou

Words of Wisdom By Maya Angelou

1. “I’ve had rainbows in my clouds.”― Maya Angelou
2. “Give yourself time just to be with yourself.” – Maya Angelou
3. “Living well is an art which can be developed.”― 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. “I learned that a friend may be waiting behind a stranger’s face.” ― Maya Angelo
10. “The only way out of something is all the way through it.”― Maya Angelou
11. “You can’t get too high for somebody to bring you down.”― Maya Angelou
12. “I did then what I knew best, when I knew better, I did better.”― Maya Angelou
13. “A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.” – Maya Angelou
14. “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

More About Maya Angelou’s Life

• 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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