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Maya Angelou (1928 - 2014)
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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.”
Keep
your pens bleeding.
Akpan
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