Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
My heart is so heavy when I see the reality of the Indian reservation and as an American, I know I am, too, responsible.
If you happen to fall in love with someone in another race, it's more difficult, because you have to translate yourself.
The Holy Spirit upon my left leads my feet without ceasing into the camp of the righteous and into the tents of the free.
In all my work, I try to say - 'You may be given a load of sour lemons, why not try to make a dozen lemon meringue pies?'
You dwell in whitened castles with deep and poisoned moats and cannot hear the curses which fill your children's throats.
The hope, the hope that lives in the breast of the black American, is just so tremendous that it overwhelms me sometimes.
While the rest of the world has been improving technology, Ghana has been improving the quality of man's humanity to man.
We are not our brother’s keeper we are our brother and we are our sister. We must look past complexion and see community.
Life is going to give you just what you put in it. Put your whole heart in everything you do, and pray, then you can wait.
A rose by any other name may smell as sweet, but a woman called by a devaluing name will only be weakened by the misnomer.
In Stamps the segregation was so complete that most Black children didn't really, absolutely know what whites looked like.
I don't know how much longer I'll be around. I'll probably be writing when the Lord says, 'Maya, Maya Angelou, it's time.'
My mother is so full of joy and life. I am her child. And that is better than being the child of anyone else in the world.
Seek patience and passion in equal amounts. Patience alone will not build the temple. Passion alone will destroy its walls.
I don't think there's such a thing as autobiographical fiction. If I say it happened, it happened, even if only in my mind.
It's a wonderful thing to know that there is something to know there is something greater than I am, and that is God itself.
Whenever I'm around some who is modest, I think, 'Run like hell and all of fire.' You don't want modesty, you want humility.
We need language to tell us who we are, how we feel, what we're capable of- to explain the pains and glory of our existence.
My work is to be honest. My work is to try to think clearly, then have the courage to make sure that what I say is the truth.
Stand up straight and realize who you are, that you tower over your circumstances. You are a child of God. Stand up straight.
To be human is to be challenged to be more divine. Not even to try to meet such a challenge is the biggest defeat imaginable.
To describe my mother would be to write about a hurricane in its perfect power. Or the climbing, falling colors of a rainbow.
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.
Each time a dancer moves devoutly or a composer faithfully searches the silence for the veiled melodies, eternity is engaged.
Light and shadow are opposite sides of the same coin. We can illuminate our paths or darken our way. It is a matter of choice.
All great artists draw from the same resource: the human heart, which tells us that we are all more alike than we are unalike.
My wish for you is that you continue. Continue to be who and how you are, to astonish a mean world with your acts of kindness.
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.
I do hope that young men and women will start to think for themselves and start to take responsibility for their own thoughts.
God puts rainbows in the clouds so that each of us - in the dreariest and most dreaded moments - can see a possibility of hope.
I work very hard, and I play very hard. I'm grateful for life. And I live it - I believe life loves the liver of it. I live it.
I've learned that every day you should reach out and touch someone. People love a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back.
It is a no-fail, incontrovertible reality: If you get, give. If you learn, teach. You can't do anything with that except do it.
I think when we don't know what to do it's wise to do nothing. Sit down quietly; quiet our hearts and minds and breathe deeply.
I've never had a dislike for men. I've been badly treated by some. But I've been loved greatly by some. I married a lot of them.
My grandmother told me that every good thing I do helps some human being in the world. I believed her 50 years ago and still do.
Remember, people will judge you by your actions not your intentions. You may have a heart of gold but so does a hard-boiled egg.
Each child belongs to all of us and they will bring us a tomorrow in direct relation to the responsibility we have shown to them.
I am convinced that most people do not grow up ... our real selves, the children inside, are still innocent and shy as magnolias.
You may write me down in history With your bitter, twisted lies. You may trod me in the very dirt, but still like dust, I'll rise.
Listen carefully to what country people call mother wit. In those homely sayings are couched the collective wisdom of generations.
We can learn to see each other and see ourselves in each other and recognize that human beings are more alike than we are unalike.
The love of the family, the love of one person can heal. It heals the scars left by a larger society. A massive, powerful society.
Never, never let a person know you're frightened. And a group of them ... absolutely never. Fear brings out the worst in everybody.
We are the victims of the world's most comprehensive robbery. Life demands a balance. It's all right if we do a little robbing now.
People feel guilty. And guilt is stymieing. Guilt immobilizes. Guilt closes the air ducts and the veins, and makes people ignorant.
If I'm going to a new country, I try to learn something about the language and the culture, so I don't just go bumbling over things.
We are growing up. We are growing up! Out of the idiocies - the ignorances of racism and sexism and ageism and all those ignorances.
The most difficult thing in the world, it seems to me, is to realize that I am a child of God; to keep that in my mind all the time.
You may write me down in history with your bitter, twisted lines. You may trod me in the very dirt, but still, like dust, I'll rise.