Maya Angelou

You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.

Hate has caused a lot of problems in this world, but it has not solved one yet.

I believe that every person is born with talent.

We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.

I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way (s)he handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.

Be a rainbow in someone else’s cloud.

Certainly the best works, and of greatest merit for the public, have proceeded from the unmarried, or childless men.

If you lose money you lose much, If you lose friends you lose more, If you lose faith you lose all.

The German intellect wants the French sprightliness, the fine practical understanding of the English, and the American adventure; but it has a certain probity, which never rests in a superficial performance, but asks steadily, To what end? A German public asks for a controlling sincerity.

What is called genius is the abundance of life and health.

Employ your time in improving yourself by other men’s writings so that you shall come easily by what others have labored hard for.

What is the difference between a taxidermist and a tax collector? The taxidermist takes only your skin.

Never do anything by halves if you want to get away with it. Be outrageous. Go the whole hog. Make sure everything you do is so completely crazy it’s unbelievable.

The physical world, including our bodies, is a response of the observer. We create our bodies as we create the experience of our world.

Necessity is the mother of taking chances.

Why do the words I want to say, struggle to come out of my mouth. Why does fear have such a grip over me. I shouldn’t have to battle to say all the complimentary things I so desperately want to share. It shouldn’t be this hard, that I have to force myself; it’s wrong that such loving words, should have to be spoken under such duress. I’m aware of how wrong it is, but withholding is all I have known, even though I desire so badly to share my thoughts and feelings with you, as freely as you do with me.

The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it.

I don’t want to talk grammar. I want to talk like a lady.

We love to expect, and when expectation is either disappointed or gratified, we want to be again expecting.

Often the surest way to convey misinformation is to tell the strict truth.

Very learned women are to be found, in the same manner as female warriors; but they are seldom or ever inventors.