Maya Angelou

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

I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better.

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies. I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size But when I start to tell them, They think I’m telling lies. I say, 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.

Out of the huts of history’s shame I rise Up from a past that’s rooted in pain I rise I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide, Welling and swelling I bear in the tide. Leaving behind nights of terror and fear I rise Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear I rise Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise I rise I rise.

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.

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

A man sits as many risks as he runs.

You must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right.

A blind man knows he cannot see, and is glad to be led, though it be by a dog; but he that is blind in his understanding, which is the worst blindness of all, believes he sees as the best, and scorns a guide.

The most I can do for my friend is simply be his friend.

Whatever games are played with us, we must play no games with ourselves, but deal in our privacy with the last honesty and truth.

How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book! The book exists for us, perchance, that will explain our miracles and reveal new ones. The at present unutterable things we may find somewhere uttered.

Whoever has lived long enough to find out what life is, knows how deep a debt of gratitude we owe to Adam, the first great benefactor of our race. He brought death into the world.

In the word of no master am I bound to believe.

A man’s growth is seen in the successive choirs of his friends.

Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.

To choose time is to save time.

The good news is that the moment you decide that what you know is more important than what you have been taught to believe, you will have shifted gears in your quest for abundance. Success comes from within, not from without.

In literature the ambition of the novice is to acquire the literary language: the struggle of the adept is to get rid of it.

Everything’s fine today, that is our illusion.

Think ahead. Don’t let day-to-day operations drive out planning.