Quotes from Maya Angelou

The Black female is assaulted in her tender years by all those common forces of nature at the same time she is caught in the tripartite crossfire of masculine prejudice, white illogical hate and Black lack of power. The fact that the adult American Negro female emerges a formidable character is often met with amazement, distaste and even belligerence. It is seldom accepted as an inevitable outcome of the struggle won by survivors and deserves respect if not enthusiastic admiration.

Love costs all we are and will ever be. Yet it is only love which sets us free. A Brave and Startling Truth.

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

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

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.

Whining is not only graceless, but it can be dangerous. It can alert a brute that a victim is in the neighborhood.

The first time someone shows you who they are, believe them.

I am a Woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal Woman, that's me.

Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise. I rise. I rise.

God puts rainbows in the clouds so that each of us — in the dreariest and most dreaded moments — can see a possibility of hope.

While I know myself as a creation of God, I am also obligated to realize and remember that everyone else and everything else are also God's creation.

You may trod me in the very dirtBut still, like dust, I'll rise.