Maya Angelou, among other things, was an accomplished writer and received many awards for her unique and pioneering writing style. Her vast collection of literary works contain timeless lessons and beautifully worded messages that we’ve compiled into a list of quotes that perfectly capture her powerful aura. Scatter them around your classroom or capture your learners’ hearts by starting their mornings off with these snippets of knowledge that speak on themes of education and personal growth.
1. “My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy.”
2. “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.”
3. “When you learn, teach. When you get, give.”
4. “The children to whom we read simple stories may or may not show gratitude, but each boon we give strengthens the spirit and weakens the giver’s enemy.”
5. “You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.”
6. “Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.”
7. “Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can’t practice any other virtue consistently.”
8. “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.”
9. “It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.”
10. “The idea is to write it so that people hear it and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the heart.”
11. “Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.”
12. “Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with deeper meaning.”
13. “If you are always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be.”
14. “Without courage we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can’t be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.”
15. “I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better.”
16. “The best candy shop a child can be left alone in is the library.”
17. “To grow up is to stop putting blame on parents.”
18. “While one may encounter many defeats, one must not be defeated. It may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.”
19. “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.”
20. “A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.”
21. “The more you know of your history, the more liberated you are.”
22. “There’s a world of difference between truth and facts. Facts can obscure the truth.”
23. “The only way you can be a mark is if you want something for nothing. If you’re greedy, you’re set up.”
24. “We are only as blind as we want to be.”
25. “Everything in the universe has a rhythm, everything dances.”
26. “Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.”
27. “Children’s talent to endure stems from their ignorance of alternatives.”
28. “When we give cheerfully and accept gratefully, everyone is blessed.”
29. “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.”
30. “The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.”
31. “You may write me down in history with your bitter, twisted lines. You may trod me in the very dirt, but still, like dust, I’ll rise.”
32. “Ask for what you want and be prepared to get it!”
33. “I believe that each of us comes from the creator trailing wisps of glory.”
34. “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”
35. “One isn’t necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency.”
36. “Nothing can dim the light which shines from within.”
37. “To those who have given up on love: I say, ‘Trust life a little bit.'”
38. “I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.”
39. “When I look back, I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature. If I were a young person today, trying to gain a sense of myself in the world, I would do that again by reading, just as I did when I was young.”
40. “Seek patience and passion in equal amounts. Patience alone will not build the temple. Passion alone will destroy its walls.”
41. “History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.”
42. “One must know not just how to accept a gift, but with what grace to share it.”
43. “We have to confront ourselves. Do we like what we see in the mirror? And, according to our light, according to our understanding, according to our courage, we will have to say yea or nay – and rise!”
44. “Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future, and renders the present inaccessible.”
45. “When we decide to be happy we accept the responsibility to bring happiness to someone else.”
46. “Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean.”
47. “We need much less than we think we need.”
48. “The desire to reach for the stars is ambitious. The desire to reach hearts is wise.”
49. “I’ve learned that even when I have pains, I don’t have to be one.”
50. “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.”
51. “Surviving is important. Thriving is elegant.”
52. “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.”
53. “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.”
54. “We must be warriors in the struggle against ignorance.”
55. “Each person deserves a day away in which no problems are confronted, no solutions searched for.”
56. “At our best, we are all teachers.”
57. “Self-pity in its early stage is as snug as a feather mattress. Only when it hardens does it become uncomfortable.”
58. “You are the sum total of everything you’ve ever seen, heard, eaten, smelled, been told, forgot – it’s all there.”
59. “You should be angry. You must not be bitter. Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. It doesn’t do anything to the object of its displeasure.”
60. “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.”
61. “The need for change bulldozed a road down the center of my mind.”
62. “Each of us, famous or infamous, is created for some divine purpose.”
63. “All great artists draw from the same resource: the human heart, which tells us that we are all more alike than we are unalike.”
64. “I don’t trust people who don’t love themselves and tell me, ‘I love you.'”
65. “If you have only one smile in you, give it to the people you love.”
66. “There is a very fine line between loving life and being greedy for it.”
67. “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.”
68. “In diversity, there is beauty and there is strength.”
69. “It’s one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself, to forgive. Forgive everybody.”
70. “We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.”
71. “Living well is an art that can be developed: a love of life and ability to take great pleasure from small offerings and assurance that the world owes you nothing and that every gift is exactly that, a gift.”
72. “We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.”
73. “If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.”
74. “It’s in the reach of my arms, the span of my hips, the stride of my step, the curl of my lips. I’m a woman phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, that’s me.”
75. “I believe that every person is born with talent.”
76. “I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself.”
77. “Whining lets a brute know that a victim is in the neighborhood.”
78. “I make writing as much a part of my life as I do eating or listening to music.”
79. “All men are prepared to accomplish the incredible if their ideals are threatened.”
80. “The quality of strength lined with tenderness is an unbeatable combination.”
81. “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.”
82. “We write for the same reason that we walk, talk, climb mountains, or swim the oceans — because we can.”
83. “I know that when I pray, something wonderful happens. Not just to the person or persons for whom I’m praying, but also something wonderful happens to me.”
84. “I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels.”
85. “The idea of overcoming is always fascinating to me, because few of us realize how much energy we have expended just to be here today.”
86. “The main thing in one’s own private world is to try to laugh as much as you cry.”
87. “You can only become truly accomplished at something you love.”
88. “A wise woman wishes to be no one’s enemy; a wise woman refuses to be anyone’s victim.”
89. “We have to dare to be ourselves, however frightening or strange that self may prove to be.”
90. “If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform a million realities.”
91. “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.”
92. “Shadows on the wall… Noises down the hall. Life doesn’t frighten me at all.”
93. “To those who are given much, much is expected.”
94. “I know for sure that love saves me and that it is here to save us all.”
95. “Let gratitude be the pillow upon which you kneel to say your nightly prayer.”
96. “Love is that condition in the human spirit so profound that it allows me to survive, and better than that, to thrive with passion, compassion, and style.”
97. “Hate, it has caused a lot of problems in the world, but has not solved one yet.”
98. “Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.”
99. “Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told: ‘I am with you kid. Let’s go.'”
100. “Our stories come from our lives and from the playwright’s pen, the mind of the actor, the roles we create, the artistry of life itself and the quest for peace.”
101. “Love is like a virus. It can happen to anybody at any time.”
102. “I respect myself and insist upon it from everybody. And because I do it, I then respect everybody, too.”
103. “The honorary duty of a human being is to love.”
104. “Lift up your eyes upon. This day breaking for you. Give birth again to the dream.”
105. “I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver.”
106. “Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time.”
107. “All great achievements require time.”
108. “I’m grateful for being here, for being able to think, for being able to see, for being able to taste, for appreciating love – for knowing that it exists in a world so rife with vulgarity, with brutality and violence, and yet love exists. I’m grateful to know that it exists.”
109. “Words are things, I’m convinced. You must be careful about the words you use or allow to be used in your presence.”
110. “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.”
111. “I 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.”
112.”I believe that the most important single thing, beyond discipline and creativity is daring to dare.”
113. “Education helps one case cease being intimidated by strange situations.”
114. “If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded.”
115. “You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.”
116. “Life loves the liver of it.”