Maya Angelou

For Africa to me… is more than a glamorous fact. It is a historical truth. No man can know where he is going unless he knows exactly where he has been and exactly how he arrived at his present place.

I’ve learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you’ll miss them when they’re gone from your life.

All men are prepared to accomplish the incredible if their ideals are threatened.

One isn’t necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can’t be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.

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.

Of all the needs (there are none imaginary) a lonely child has, the one that must be satisfied, if there is going to be hope and a hope of wholeness, is the unshaken need for an unshakable God.

He was also efficient and gave me his four-step formula for success: 1. Get in. 2. Get it done. 3. Get it done right. 4. And get out.

Dreams are renewable. No matter what our age or condition, there are still untapped possibilities within us, and a new beauty waiting to be born.

It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.

The more you prospect, the more you prosper.

The most important thing is to know that you can do it.

Motivation is a fire from within. If someone else tries to light that fire under you, chances are it will burn very briefly.

Sometimes you just got to give yourself what you wish someone else would give you.

Anything’s possible if you’ve got enough nerve.

Positive thinking will let you do everything better than negative thinking will.

You are the architect of your own destiny; you are the master of your own fate; you are behind the steering wheel of your life. There are no limitations to what you can do, have, or be. Accept the limitations you place on yourself by your own thinking.

There is no substitute for hard work.

It was a feeling I had. People were taught how to think, we’re taught how to feel. We don’t know how to think for ourselves, [and] we don’t know how to feel for ourselves. People say ‘Feel free,’ but they don’t really want us to feel free. I felt a freedom, first of all, doing something that everybody tells you not to do.

You are essentially who you create yourself to be and all that occurs in your life is the result of your own making.

We are all inventors, each sailing out on a voyage of discovery, guided each by a private chart, of which there is no duplicate. The world is all gates, all opportunities.

I’m so optimistic, I’d go after Moby Dick in a rowboat and take the tartar sauce with me.