Maya Angelou

I believe we are still so innocent. The species are still so innocent that a person who is apt to be murdered believes that the murderer, just before he puts the final wrench on his throat, will have enough compassion to give him one sweet cup of water.

We love and lose in China, we weep on England’s moors, and laugh and moan in Guinea, and thrive on Spanish shores. We seek success in Finland, are born and die in Maine. In minor ways we differ, in major we’re the same.

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

When you know better you do better.

Be a rainbow in someone else’s cloud.

We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.

Age appears to be best in four things; old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read.

Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.

The dice of God are always loaded.

To hold a pen is to be at war.

Concentration is the secret of strength in politics, in war, in trade, in short, in all the management of human affairs.

The truest end of life is to know that life never ends.

You cannot spend money in luxury without doing good to the poor. Nay, you do more good to them by spending it in luxury, than by giving it; for by spending it in luxury, you make them exert industry, whereas by giving it, you keep them idle.

There are no have-to’s, just choices.

We have more than we use.

Let a man find himself, in distinction from others, on top of two wheels with a chain – at least in a poor country like Russia – and his vanity begins to swell out like his tires. In America it takes an automobile to produce this effect.

Mix a little foolishness with your serious plans. It is lovely to be silly at the right moment.

Words are alive; cut them and they bleed.

The world is its own magic.

How we glow over these novels of passion, when the story is told with any spark of truth and nature! And what fastens attention, in the intercourse of life, like any passage betraying affection between two parties? Perhaps we never saw them before and never shall meet them again. But we see them exchange a glance or betray a deep emotion, and we are no longer strangers. We understand them and take the warmest interest in the development of the romance. All mankind love a lover.

All the reasonings of men are not worth one sentiment of women.