Quotes by Maya Angelou

About Maya Angelou:

Maya Angelou is best known for her series of seven autobiographies, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), tells of her life up to the age of 17 and brought her international recognition and acclaim.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Through the dense din, I say, we heard him shout "I see your lights!" But ours had long died out.

Maya Angelou

You shall not hear their mirth: You shall not come to think them well content By any jest of mine. These men are worth Your tears:You are not worth their merriment.

Maya Angelou

When Adam ate the irrevocable apple, Thou Saw'st beyond death the resurrection of the dead

Maya Angelou

So dim below these symbols show, Bony and abstract every one. Yet if true verse but lift the curse, They feel in dreams their native Sun.

Maya Angelou

What a strange thing! to be alive beneath cherry blossoms.

Maya Angelou

I hate the thing is called enjoyment: Besides it is a dull employment, It cuts off all that's life and fire From that which may be termed desire; Just like the bee whose sting is gone Converts the owner to a drone.

Maya Angelou

If chance be the Father of all flesh, Disaster is his rainbow in the sky, And when you hear State of Emergency! Sniper Kills Ten! Troops on Rampage! Whites go Looting! Bomb Blasts School! It is but the sound of man worshiping his maker.

Maya Angelou

If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform a million realities.

Maya Angelou

The revolution is now just a sentiment.

Maya Angelou

Here in this endless and gleaming wilderness I was removed farther than ever from the world of men -- And I never saw so close and so clearly The image in the mirror of my own soul.

Maya Angelou

Cupid and Bacchus my saints are, May drink and love still reign, With wine I wash away my cares, And then to cunt again.

Maya Angelou

The glories of our blood and state Are shadows, not substantial things; There is no armor against Fate. Death lays his icy hand on kings...

Maya Angelou

It’s the fire in my eyes, And the flash of my teeth, The swing in my waist, And the joy in my feet. I’m a woman Phenomenally.

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

What you're supposed to do when you don't like a thing is change it. If you can't change it, change the way you think about it. Don't complain.

Maya Angelou

Sister, there are people who went to sleep all over the world last night, poor and rich and white and black, but they will never wake again. Sister, those who expected to rise did not, their beds became their cooling boards, and their blankets became...

Maya Angelou

That knowledge humbles me, melts my bones, closes my ears, and makes my teeth rock loosely in their gums. And it also liberates me. I am a big bird winging over high mountains, down into serene valleys. I am ripples of waves on silver seas. I'm a spr...

Maya Angelou

Whining is not only graceless, but can be dangerous. It can alert a brute that a victim is in the neighborhood.

Maya Angelou

Each person deserves a day away in which no problems are confronted, no solutions searched for.

Maya Angelou

Living well is an art that can be developed: a love of life and ability to take great pleasure from small offerings and assurance that the world owes you nothing and that every gift is exactly that, a gift.

Maya Angelou

Each of us has the right and the responsibility to assess the roads which lie ahead, and those over which we have traveled, and if the future road looms ominous or unpromising, and the roads back uninviting, then we need to gather our resolve and, ca...

Maya Angelou

Author Bio

  • NameMaya Angelou
  • DescriptionAmerican author and poet
  • BornApril 4, 1928
  • DiedMay 28, 2014
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionPoet; Actor; Dancer; Film Producer; Television Producer; Playwright; Film Director; Professor; Screenwriter; Writer; Essayist; Songwriter; Autobiographer
  • WorksI Know Why The Caged Bird Sings; On The Pulse Of Morning
  • AwardsMarian Anderson Award; National Women's Hall Of Fame