Maya Angelou

When I look back, I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature. If I were a young person today, trying to gain a sense of myself in the world, I would do that again by reading, just as I did when I was young.

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.

My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy. That some people, unable to go to school, were more educated and more intelligent than college professors.

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

Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can’t practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.

Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time.

Genius at first is little more than a great capacity for receiving discipline.

Every man I meet is in some way my superior.

You don’t create things, you discover things.

I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.

New ideas come into this world somewhat like falling meteors, with a flash and an explosion, and perhaps somebody

You should always own a black dress because no one ever remembers a black dress.

Beware the barrenness of a busy life.

Tear thyself from delay.

Though I can make my extravaganzas appear credible, I cannot make the truth appear so.

A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him, I may think aloud.

One of the benefits of a college education is to show the boy its little avail.

It’s not burn baby burn, but learn, baby, learn, so that you can earn, baby, earn.

Let us be grateful to the mirror for revealing to us our appearance only.

There is no odor so bad as that which arises from goodness tainted.

The intuitive recognition of the instant, thus reality… is the highest act of wisdom.