Maya Angelou: Trending quotes (page 11)

“If I insist on being pessimistic, there is always tomorrow. Today I am blessed.”

“To grow up is to stop putting blame on parents”

“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.”

“You dwell in whitened castles
with deep and poisoned moats
and cannot hear the curses
which fill your children's throats.”

“I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.”

“There are some nights when
sleep plays coy,
aloof and disdainful.
And all the wiles
that I employ to win
its service to my side
are useless as wounded pride,
and much more painful.”

“I find relief from the questions only when I concede that I am not obliged to know everything. I remind myself it is sufficient to know what I know, and that what I know, may not always be true.”

“In all my work what I try to say is that as human beings we are more alike than we are unalike.”

“You only are free when you realize you belong no place — you belong every place — no place at all.”

“My life has been long, and believing that life loves the liver of it, I have dared to try many things, sometimes trembling, but daring, still.”

“I had read a Tale of Two Cities and found it up to my standards as a romantic novel. She opened the first page and I heard poetry for the first time in my life… her voice slid in and curved down trough and over the words. She was nearly singing.”

“I don't believe an accident of birth makes people sisters or brothers. It makes them siblings, gives them mutuality of parentage. Sisterhood and brotherhood is a condition people have to work at.”

“If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude.”

“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.”

“No human being can be more human than another human being. I liberate you from my ignorance.”

“I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.”

“Remember, people will judge you by your actions not your intentions. You may have a heart of gold but so does a hard-boiled egg.”

“You are the sum total of everything you’ve ever seen, heard, eaten, smelled, been told, forgot - it’s all there. Everything influences each of us, and because of that I try to make sure that my experiences are positive.”

“I couldn't tell fact from fiction,
Or if the dream was true
My only sure prediction
In this world was you.
I'd touch your features inchly. Beard love and dared the cost, The sented spiel reeled me unreal And I found my senses lost.”