Inspiration Quotes By Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou
Born April 4, 1928
US author, poet

Maya Angelou, (born Marguerite Ann Johnson on April 4, 1928) is an American poet, memoirist, actress and an important figure in the American Civil Rights Movement. She has been called "America's most visible black female autobiographer". Angelou is known for her series of six autobiographies, starting with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, (1969) which was nominated for a National Book Award. Her volume of poetry, Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'Fore I Die (1971) was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.

Angelou recited her poem, "On the Pulse of Morning" at President Bill Clinton's inauguration in 1993. She has been highly honored for her body of work, including being awarded over 30 honorary degrees.



Honors and awards
Angelou has been honored by universities, literary organizations, government agencies, and special interest groups. Her honors include a National Book Award nomination for I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, a Pulitzer Prize nomination for her book of poetry, Just Give Me A Cool Drink of Water 'Fore I Die, a Tony Award nomination for her role in the 1973 play Look Away, and three Grammys for her spoken word albums. In 1995, Angelou's publishing company, Bantam Books, recognized her for having the longest-running record (two years) on The New York Times Paperback Nonfiction Bestseller List. She has served on two presidential committees, and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Arts in 2000 and the Lincoln Medal in 2008. Musician Ben Harper has honored Angelou with his song "I'll Rise," which includes words from her poem, "And Still I Rise." She has been awarded over thirty honorary degrees.

Be inspired by these famous inspirational quotes by Maya Angelou. May her words remind you that you have the power to change your situation!

If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. Don't complain.
Maya Angelou

Nothing will work unless you do.
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

Living a life is like constructing a building: if you start wrong, you'll end wrong.
Maya Angelou

We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.
Maya Angelou

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

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.
Maya Angelou

Education helps one case cease being intimidated by strange situations.
Maya Angelou

Alone, all alone nobody, but nobody
can make it out here alone.

Maya Angelou
I believe the most important single thing, beyond discipline and creativity is daring to dare.
Maya Angelou

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

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

It is this belief in a power larger than myself and other than myself which allows me to venture into the unknown and even the unknowable.
Maya Angelou

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

See, you don’t have to think about doing the right thing if you are for the right thing then you’ll do it without thinking.
Maya Angelou

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

Something made greater by ourselves and in turn that makes us greater.
Maya Angelou

Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at it destination full of hope.
Maya Angelou

All great achievements require time.
Maya Angelou

The most called-upon prerequisite of a friend is an accessible ear.
Maya Angelou

I’ve learned that making a "living" is not the same thing as making a "life".
Maya Angelou

Ask for what you want and be prepared to get it.
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

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 you.
Maya Angelou

We all should know that diversity makes for a rich tapestry, and we must understand that all the threads of the tapestry are equal in value no matter what their color.
Maya Angelou

If you have only one smile in you, give it to the people you love. Don't be surly at home, then go out in the street and start grinning "Good morning" at total strangers.
Maya Angelou

I believe that every person is born with talent.
Maya Angelou

Each of us has that right, that possibility, to invent ourselves daily. If a person does not invent herself, she will be invented. So, to be bodacious enough to invent ourselves is wise.
Maya Angelou

Love life, engage in it, give it all you've got. love it with a passion, because life truly does give back, many times over, what you put into it.
Maya Angelou

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

It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.
Maya Angelou

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

The horizon leans forward, offering you space to place new steps of change.
Maya Angelou

I can be changed by what happens to me. but i refuse to be reduced by it.
Maya Angelou

A bizarre sensation pervades a relationship of pretense. No truth seems true. A simple morning's greeting and response appear loaded with innuendo and fraught with implications. Each nicety becomes more sterile and each withdrawal more permanent.
Maya Angelou

Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean.
Maya Angelou

Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with deeper meaning.
Maya Angelou

We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.
Maya Angelou

I don't believe an accident of birth makes people sisters or brothers. It makes them siblings, gives them mutuality of parentage. Sisterhood and brotherhood is a condition people have to work at.
Maya Angelou

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