100+ Powerful Maya Angelou Quotes That Inspire & Motivate

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

"I’ve learned that courage may be purchased at the cost of pain, but it’s priceless once you have it."

"Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope."

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

"We may encounter many defeats, but we must not be defeated."

"Ask for what you believe you deserve, and if they don’t give it to you, walk away."

"The bravest of individuals is the one who feels frightened but carries on anyway."

"If you’re going to live, leave a legacy. Make a mark on the world that can’t be erased."

"Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it."

"Nothing will work unless you do."

"We need much less than we think we need."

"When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time."

"People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."

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

"Loving myself is not vanity. It is sanity."

"I do not trust people who don't love themselves and yet tell me, 'I love you.' There is an African saying which I saw on a wall: 'Be careful when you spit against the wind.'"

"To love someone deeply gives you strength. Being loved deeply gives you courage."

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

"The ache for home lives in all of us. The safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned."

"When you know better, you do better."

"Let gratitude be the pillow upon which you kneel to say your nightly prayer."

"We allow our ignorance to prevail upon us and make us think we can survive alone."

"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."

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

"You alone are enough. You have nothing to prove to anybody."

"Try to be a rainbow in someone else’s cloud."

"I am a woman phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, that's me."

"My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style."

"A wise woman wishes to be no one’s enemy; a wise woman refuses to be anyone’s victim."

"If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude."

"Out of necessity, I became a fighter. Out of desperation, I became determined."

"You can only become truly accomplished at something you love."

"I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it."

"The idea is to write it so that people hear it and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the heart."

"We are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike."

"I've learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you’ll miss them when they’re gone from your life."

"You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated."

"I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it."

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

"Survival is important. Survival is insufficient."

"The human heart has a way of surviving even the worst conditions."

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

"Every day brings a chance for you to draw in a breath, kick off your shoes, and dance."

"We may come from different places, but we are headed for the same place — healing."

"You are the sum total of everything you've ever seen, heard, eaten, smelled, been told, forgot—it's all there."

"It’s foolish to fear what you already survived."

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

"We need to reclaim the word struggle and remove its negative connotations. Struggle means being alive."

"Phenomenal woman, that's me."

"I am a woman, phenomenally. Strong in my body, strong in my soul."

"A woman's success mustn't be measured by the man she marries."

"I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life's too short to be timid."

"The woman in me dared to reach for the man in you."

"When women take care of themselves, they teach others how to treat them."

"I’m a woman. Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, that’s me."

"I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise. I rise. I rise."

"Women should be tough, tender, laugh as much as possible, and live long lives."

"The best way for anyone to live is to be honest, to be good-hearted, and to act on the spur of the moment."

"Each of us has the power to heal, to forgive, to grow, and to love."

"I’ve learned that I still like me… and that’s important."

"Freedom is a heavy load, a great and strange burden for the weak to carry, and the weak cannot carry it alone."

"In order to effect change, you must first be change."

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

"We must confront unjust laws and speak truth to power."

"When people get caught up with the things that they own, they end up owning them."

"I am a black woman poet. That doesn’t mean I didn’t live in the U.S., but it means I didn’t live in the white part."

"The caged bird sings with a fearful trill of things unknown but longed for still."

"I am not satisfied until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream."

"If you are always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be."

"We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools."

"I speak to the black experience, but I am always talking about the human condition."

"You may write me down in history with your bitter, twisted lies, but still, like air, I’ll rise."

"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."

"When you know better, you do better."

"People don’t always remember the exact words you said, but they’ll never forget how you made them feel."

"Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told: 'I'm with you kid. Let's go!'"

"Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better."

"The ache for home lives in all of us—the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned."

"We are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike."

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

"You can’t really use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have."

"Treat your mother with respect, even if she doesn’t deserve it. She gave you life."

"Don’t blame people for what they don’t know. Help them to know."

"We spend precious hours fearing the inevitable. It would be better to use that time getting to know the inevitable."

"Hope and fear cannot occupy the same space. When hope is present, fear is absent."

"We need joy as we need air. We need love as we need water. We need each other as we need the earth we share."

"Everything in the universe has a rhythm; everything dances."

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

"See, I don’t look down on you, and you don’t look down on me. That’s equality."

"We can learn to see each other and see ourselves in each other and recognize that we are all members of one family."

"I sustain myself with the love of family."

"All great achievements require time."

"The sun comes up every morning without fail. It doesn’t ask permission. It just rises."

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

"We need much less than we think we need."

"We may not be able to prepare the future for our children, but we can prepare our children for the future."

"I believe we are all creative, but that we are not all courageous enough to take the leap."

"Every person needs to take one step into the dark, and faith is what carries you across."

"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 find it necessary to remind myself that God is always preparing me for the next thing."

"The truth is, no one of us can be free until everybody is free."

"I am grateful to be a woman. I am grateful to be a black woman. I am grateful to be an American woman."

"Faith is the bird that feels the light and sings before the dawn."

"I am a woman, phenomenally. My soul is my own."

"We need religion when it brings people together, not when it drives them apart."

"Prayer is the key of the morning and the bolt of the evening."

"God says, 'I love you,' every time the sun comes up."

"Spirituality is recognizing that we are all connected."

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

"You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have."

"I write for the same reason I breathe — because if I didn’t, I would die."

"The idea is to write it so that people hear it and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the heart."

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

"You can tell a lot about a person by the way they handle three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas lights."

"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."

"Language was given so we could ask questions, not just give answers."

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

"I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way they carry their books."

"Writing is medicine. It is an appropriate antidote to injury."

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