Maya Angelou quotes

Maya Angelou was an American poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist celebrated for her powerful writings on identity and resilience. Her works, including "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," have inspired generations with their honesty and depth. She became a voice for the marginalized and remains a symbol of hope and empowerment. Here are 451 of her quotes:

I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

Maya Angelou

Love is like a virus. It can happen to anybody at any time.

Maya Angelou

How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!

Maya Angelou

If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded.

Maya Angelou

If we lose love and self respect for each other, this is how we finally die.

Maya Angelou

Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told: "I'm with you kid. Let's go."

Maya Angelou

When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.

Maya Angelou

My great hope is to laugh as much as I cry; to get my work done and try to love somebody and have the courage to accept the love in return.

Maya Angelou

I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver.

Maya Angelou

We allow our ignorance to prevail upon us and make us think we can survive alone, alone in patches, alone in groups, alone in races, even alone in genders.

Maya Angelou

There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.

Maya Angelou

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.

Maya Angelou

There is nothing so pitiful as a young cynic because he has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing.

Maya Angelou

At fifteen life had taught me undeniably that surrender, in its place, was as honorable as resistance, especially if one had no choice.

Maya Angelou

Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.

Maya Angelou

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

Maya Angelou

I believe that every person is born with talent.

Maya Angelou

Children's talent to endure stems from their ignorance of alternatives.

Maya Angelou

Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible.

Maya Angelou

History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.

Maya Angelou

Most plain girls are virtuous because of the scarcity of opportunity to be otherwise.

Maya Angelou

One isn't necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.

Maya Angelou