Maya Angelou

Achievement brings its own anticlimax.

Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible.

We allow our ignorance to prevail upon us and make us think we can survive alone, alone in patches, alone in groups, alone in races, even alone in genders.

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.

Surviving is important. Thriving is elegant.

Self-pity in its early stages is as snug as a feather mattress. Only when it hardens does it become uncomfortable.

To be free minded and cheerfully disposed at hours of meat and sleep and of exercise is one of the best precepts of long lasting.

I trust no one, not even myself.

The perception of beauty is a moral test.

The eloquent man is he who is no eloquent speaker, but who is inwardly drunk with a certain belief.

He is now rising from affluence to poverty.

He who waits to do a great deal of good at once will never do anything.

It is admirable to consider how many Millions of People come into, and go out of the World, Ignorant of themselves, and of the World they have lived in.

Don’t be afraid. Be focused. Be determined. Be hopeful. Be empowered.

For disappointments, that come not by our own folly, they are the trials or corrections of Heaven: and it is our own fault, if they prove not our advantage.

A day for toil, an hour for sport, but for a friend is life too short.

The fickleness of the women I love is only equaled by the infernal constancy of the women who love me.

I never worry about action, but only inaction.

Most people have never learned that one of the main aims in life is to enjoy it.

You know about a person who deeply interests you more than you can be told. A look, a gesture, an act, which to everybody else is insignificant tells you more about that one than words can.

A man cannot speak but he judges himself. With his will or against his will he draws his portrait to the eye of his companions by every word. Every opinion reacts on him who utters it. It is a threadball thrown at a mark, but the other end remains on the thrower.