Maya Angelou
American poet, memoirist, civil rights activist, and one of the defining literary voices of the late twentieth century. Born in 1928 in St. Louis, she lived through years of mute silence after childhood trauma, then through dancing, singing, journalism, and revolutionary work — corresponding with Malcolm X in Ghana, working on the Selma to Montgomery March with King — before her seven-volume autobiography (beginning with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings in 1969) made her one of the most-read American writers. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2010, recited On the Pulse of Morning at Bill Clinton's inauguration in 1993, and produced poetry — Phenomenal Woman, Still I Rise — that has become contemporary scripture for several generations of readers. She died in 2014 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
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quotes in library
Quotes by Maya Angelou
118 quotes“Up from a past that's rooted in pain, I rise.”
risingStill I Rise
“I am the dream and the hope of the slave.”
hopeStill I Rise
“I rise. I rise. I rise.”
risingStill I Rise
“Have enough courage to start and enough heart to finish.”
courageLetter to My Daughter
“Most plain girls are virtuous because of the scarcity of opportunity to be otherwise.”
observationI Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
“You should be angry. You must not be bitter. Anger is like fire. It burns it all clean. Bitterness is the same as cancer.”
angerConversations
“Use anger like a force of fire to clean out the wrong.”
angerConversations
“In the end, the words of your friends and family will fade. Your own words you will carry.”
wordsLetter to My Daughter
“Love liberates. It does not bind.”
loveLetter to My Daughter
“Love is liberating. Even if the love is not returned.”
loveLetter to My Daughter
“Be a rainbow in another person's cloud.”
rainbowLetter to My Daughter
“Develop enough courage so that you can stand up for yourself and then stand up for somebody else.”
courageLetter to My Daughter
“Words are things, I'm convinced.”
wordsI Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
“You must be careful what kind of language you keep around your house.”
languageLetter to My Daughter
“Independence is a heady draft, and if you drink it in your youth, it can have the same effect on the brain as young wine.”
independenceI Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
“The first time someone shows you who they are, believe them.”
discernmentLetter to My Daughter
“There is no greater gift than the gift of a willing listener.”
listeningLetter to My Daughter
“Whining is not only graceless, but can be dangerous. It can alert a brute that a victim is in the neighborhood.”
whiningWouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now
“Sister, I'm sorry. Sister, I love you. These are the two strongest sentences in any language.”
sisterLetter to My Daughter
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