Eneh Akpan Writes: 50 Favorite Maya Angelou Quotes

Maya Angelou (1928 - 2014)

Maya Angelou, who passed away yesterday at the age of 86, was a great poet, author, playwright, director, performer, actress, professor, producer, singer and civil rights activist and mentor who touched the lives of old, young, black and white people across the globe in ways she could never have possibly imagined. I have been privileged to experience her passion, personality, and power through her poetry. I have received hope to go on by reading her and the quotes listed here have been collected from sites across the WWW including goodreads.com, theguardian.com, USAToday.com, cleveland.com, mashable.com, policymic.com and cbc.ca.

I hope you find something to give you wings until you rise…

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

2. “If you’re always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be.”

3. “All men are prepared to accomplish the incredible if their ideals are threatened.”

4. "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."

5. “If you're for the right thing, you do it without thinking.”

6. “If you want what you’re saying to be heard then take your time and say it so that the listener will actually hear it. You might save somebody’s life. Your own, first.”

7. "I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life's a bitch. You've got to go out and kick ass.”

8. “I speak to the Black experience, but I am always talking about the human condition — about what we can endure, dream, fail at and survive.”

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

10. “One of the difficulties with absorbing what is said of one is that you have to live up to it."

11. “I believe that each of us comes from the creator trailing wisps of glory.”

12. “You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.”

13. “I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back.”

14. “We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.”

15. “When I'm writing poetry, that's the world to me.”

16. “Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently.”

17. “I do not trust people who don't love themselves and yet tell me, 'I love you.' There is an African saying which is: Be careful when a naked person offers you a shirt.”

18. “You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead pursue the things you love doing and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off of you.”

19. “A friend may be waiting behind a stranger’s face.”

20. “The need for change bulldozed a road down the center of my mind.”

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

22. “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.”

23. “Listen to yourself and in that quietude you might hear the voice of God.”

24. “We have to confront ourselves. Do we like what we see in the mirror? And, according to our light, according to our understanding, according to our courage, we will have to say yea or nay — and rise!”

25. “Have enough courage to trust love one more time. And always one more time.”

26. “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.”

27. “A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.”

28. “Never make someone a priority when all you are to them is an option.”

29. “The desire to reach the stars is ambitious. The desire to reach hearts is wise and most possible.”

30. “It's one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself, to forgive. Forgive everybody.”

31. “The love of the family, the love of the person can heal. It heals the scars left by a larger society. A massive, powerful society.”

32. “I have created myself. I have taught myself so much.”

33. “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.”

34. “It is said some put people on pedestals so they can see them more clearly and they can knock them off more easily. I don't consider that.”

35. “I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better.”

36. “Stepping onto a brand-new path is difficult, but not more difficult than remaining in a situation, which is not nurturing to the whole woman.”

37. “Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him.”

38. “Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with shades of deeper meaning.”

39. “You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.”

40. “I believe that the most important single thing, beyond discipline and creativity is daring to dare.”

41. “All great achievements require time.”

42. “Some people cannot see a good thing when it is right here, right now. Others can sense a good thing coming when it is days, months, or miles away.”

43. “Had I known that the heart breaks slowly, dismantling itself into unrecognizable plots of misery... had I known yet I would have loved you.”

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

45. "I know I'm doing my best most of the time, and when I am not, I forgive myself."

46. “I believe that one carries the shadows, the dreams, the fears and dragons of home under one’s skin, at the extreme corners of one’s eyes and possibly in the gristle of the earlobe.”

47. “Home is that youthful region where a child is the only real living inhabitant.”

48. “For Africa to me... is more than a glamorous fact. It is a historical truth. No man can know where he is going unless he knows exactly where he has been and exactly how he arrived at his present place.”

49. “Each time I write a book, every time I face that yellow pad, the challenge is so great. I have written eleven books, but each time I think, ‘Uh oh, they’re going to find out now. I’ve run a game on everybody and they’re going to find me out.”

50. “Some people, unable to go to school, are more intelligent and more educated than college professors.”