Maya Angelou

Some critics will write ‘Maya Angelou is a natural writer’ – which is right after being a natural heart surgeon.

There is a very fine line between loving life and being greedy for it.

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

There is nothing so pitiful as a young cynic because he has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing.

Since time is the one immaterial object which we cannot influence – neither speed up nor slow down, add to nor diminish – it is an imponderably valuable gift.

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.

Nothing external to you has any power over you.

I hate the irreverent rabble and keep them far from me.

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

If your determination is fixed, I do not counsel you to despair. Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance.

The greatest glory in living lies in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.

A man must consider what a rich realm he abdicates when he becomes a conformist.

You show your worth by what you seek! – Rumi

Never marry but for love; but see that thou lovest what is lovely.

No compliment can be eloquent, except as an expression of indifference.

Patience – the gift of being able to see past the emotion.

Our best thoughts come from others.

Conversation is an art in which a man has all mankind for competitors.

A man is related to all nature.

And certainly, the mistakes that we male and female mortals make when we have our own way might fairly raise some wonder that we are so fond of it.

If I had no duties, and no reference to futurity, I would spend my life in driving briskly in a post-chaise with a pretty woman.