Maya Angelou

If you have only one smile in you, give it to the people you love. Don’t be surly at home, then go out in the street and start grinning Good morning at total strangers.

The need for change bulldozed a road down the center of my mind.

I find it interesting that the meanest life, the poorest existence, is attributed to God’s will, but as human beings become more affluent, as their living standard and style begin to ascend the material scale, God descends the scale of responsibility at a commensurate speed.

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.

Hate has caused a lot of problems in this world, but it has not solved one yet.

While I know myself as a creation of God, I am also obligated to realize and remember that everyone else and everything else are also God’s creation.

My life has been one great big joke, a dance that’s walked a song that’s spoke, I laugh so hard I almost choke when I think about myself.

I have lived some thirty-odd years on this planet, and I have yet to hear the first syllable of valuable or even earnest advice from my seniors.

Virtue is like a rich stone, best plain set.

The liar’s punishment is, not in the least that he is not believed, but that he cannot believe anyone else.

How can what an Englishman believes be hearsay? It is a contradiction in terms.

There are charms made only for distant admiration.

The highest panegyric, therefore, that private virtue can receive, is the praise of servants.

Having power is not nearly as important as what you choose to do with it.

Be virtuous and you will be eccentric.

Rarely promise, but, if lawful, constantly perform.

I was not the lion, but it fell to me to give the lion’s roar.

Work and play are words used to describe the same thing under differing conditions.

Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.

I like the silent church before the service begins, better than any preaching.

Nature has made up her mind that what cannot defend itself shall not be defended.