Maya Angelou

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

There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.

Achievement brings its own anticlimax.

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.

How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!

If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. Don’t complain.

It’s misogynistic in nature to try and control a woman’s sexual presentation of self. I consider this an issue that is bigger than one film.

[on Serena Williams] You are THE epitome of grace and prowess!!! You are an inspiration to all of us. Your purpose to be a leader and a light is a gift to the world!! We love you and thank you for sharing your greatness and spirit!

The fact that the adult American Negro female emerges a formidable character is often met with amazement, distaste and even belligerance. It is seldom accepted as an inevitable outcome of the struggle won by survivors, and deserves respect if not enthusiastic acceptance.

Most plain girls are virtuous because of the scarcity of opportunity to be otherwise.

I’m trying to do my part as a citizen. My part as a Hispanic. My part as a woman. As an American. I enjoy it. I think everybody should be civically engaged in a level that will affect policy. That’s the point. That how our government is set up.

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.

You can’t deny women their basic rights and pretend it’s about your ‘religious freedom’. If you don’t like birth control, don’t use it. Religious freedom doesn’t mean that you can force others to live by your own beliefs.

If we want our daughters to dream bigger than we did we still have work to do.

To all my goddesses in the world spreading love and light, power and radiance. Never stop being brilliant!!

[Feminism] means that you believe in the equality of the sexes in every way.

Girls should never be afraid to be smart.

The difference between a broken community and a thriving one is the presence of women who are valued.

I’m not a feminist. If men were going through the things women are going through today, I would be fighting for them with just as much passion. I believe in equality.

I never identified with the feminist movement in a strong way. I just kind of lived it. I didn’t politicize it. I didn’t follow any written rules to what it meant to be a feminist. I had my own sense of what was right and wrong.

It’s pretty clear that if men were having babies we’d have different policies.