Maya Angelou

We, unaccustomed to courage exiles from delight live coiled in shells of loneliness until love leaves its high holy temple and comes into our sight to liberate us into life. Love arrives and in its train come ecstasies old memories of pleasure ancient histories of pain. Yet if we are bold, love strikes away the chains of fear from our souls. We are weaned from our timidity In the flush of love’s light we dare be brave And suddenly we see that love costs all we are and will ever be. Yet it is only love which sets us free.

My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humour, and some style.

Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.

I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.

I’ve learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow.

If we lose love and self respect for each other, this is how we finally die.

There is a hush over all Europe, nay, over all the world. Alas! it is the hush of suspense, and in many lands it is the hush of fear. Listen! No, listen carefully, I think I hear somethingyes, there it was quite clear. Dont you hear it? It is the tramp of armies crunching the gravel of the paradegrounds, splashing through rain-soaked fields, the tramp of two million German soldiers and more than a million Italiansgoing on maneuversyes, only on maneuvers!

To know, is to know that you know nothing. That is the meaning of true knowledge.

It doesn’t matter who you are or what you look like as long as somebody loves you.

Trust instinct to the end, even though you can give no reason.

I am easily satisfied with the very best.

It is better that some should be unhappy than that none should be happy, which would be the case in a general state of equality.

Ready are you? What know you of ready?

The greatest man in history was the poorest.

It is as natural to die as to be born; and to a little infant, perhaps, the one is as painful as the other.

Adam was but human-this explains it all. He did not want the apple for the apple’s sake, he wanted it only because it was forbidden. The mistake was in not forbidding the serpent; then he would have eaten the serpent.

A man who exposes himself when he is intoxicated, has not the art of getting drunk.

In a man’s letters you know, Madam, his soul lies naked, his letters are only the mirror of his breast, whatever passes within him is shown undisguised in its natural process. Nothing is inverted, nothing distorted, you see systems in their elements, you discover actions in their motives.

Lilac anemone, paper petals, turning tentatively to face a pale sun opening to reveal a lightness of being, a flash of gold, a fresh resilience, contented silence, the dawn of a new day.

Martyrdom covers a multitude of sins.

We are stripped bare by the curse of plenty.