Maya Angelou Quotes to Get Your Whole Life

I have already told you guys about my 5th grade graduation. And while I honestly do not remember too much from the day, I do remember my family making it a very big deal. I remember my great Aunt Stine sending me a thin blue booklet with gold lettering on the cover as celebration of the achievement. It was copy of the poem written for the inauguration of President Bill Clinton called On the Pulse of Morning by this writer, Maya Angelou. I still have that tiny blue booklet. And that moment cemented in my mind the love I have for Maya Angelou.

This day in 1928, Maya Angelou was born.

While here, Maya was one of America’s most beloved poets and authors, honored with dozens of awards and over 50 honorary degrees. And yes, while she did have the honor of reciting the first poem since 1961 at a Presidential Inauguration in 1993, in 2000, she was honored with National Medal of Arts, followed by the presentation of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of the country’s highest honors in 2010 by President Barack Obama.

I don't know very many people who are unfamiliar with Maya's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969) or any of her other memoirs. Outside of memoirs and poetry, Maya was also a journalist who worked throughout the continent of Africa, a historian, songwriter, and performer, often found singing and dancing.

Maya was also an activist, one of the Civil Rights Movement’s most prominent women, who worked with greats such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Maya was a tireless humanitarian, devoting her life to helping and healing Women and Black people.

On May 28, 2014, Maya Angelou passed away at the age of 86.

It seems fitting to celebrate her birthday and National Poetry Month, seeing as how som of the most prolific and powerful poetry written in this country, in this world, was created by this truly phenomenal woman.

Here are my favorite quotes by 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."

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

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

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

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.

Nothing will work unless you do.

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

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

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

"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."

"If I am not good to myself, how can I expect anyone else to be good to me?"

"Without courage we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can’t be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest."

"I’ve learned that even when I have pains, I don’t have to be one."

"Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time."

"If you’re always trying to be normal you will never know how amazing you can be."

And one of my most treasured poems by Maya:

Still I Rise

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.



Does my sassiness upset you?

Why are you beset with gloom?

’Cause I walk like I've got oil wells

Pumping in my living room.



Just like moons and like suns,

With the certainty of tides,

Just like hopes springing high,

Still I'll rise.



Did you want to see me broken?

Bowed head and lowered eyes?

Shoulders falling down like teardrops,

Weakened by my soulful cries?



Does my haughtiness offend you?

Don't you take it awful hard

’Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines

Diggin’ in my own backyard.



You may shoot me with your words,

You may cut me with your eyes,

You may kill me with your hatefulness,

But still, like air, I’ll rise.



Does my sexiness upset you?

Does it come as a surprise

That I dance like I've got diamonds

At the meeting of my thighs?



Out of the huts of history’s shame

I rise

Up from a past that’s rooted in pain

I rise

I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,

Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.



Leaving behind nights of terror and fear

I rise

Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear

I rise

Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,

I am the dream and the hope of the slave.

I rise

I rise

I rise.