Maya Angelou quotes

Diversity makes for a rich tapestry, and we must understand that all the threads of the tapestry are equal in value no matter their color; equal in importance no matter their texture.

Every person needs to take one day away.

Each of us needs to withdraw from the cares which will not withdraw from us.

I find surcease from the entanglement of questions only when I concede that I am not obliged to know everything.

When people are young, they desperately need to conform, and no one can embarrass a young person in public so much as an adult to whom he or she is related.

I will step out on the word of God.

Remember, you were looking for a job when you found the one you just lost.

A conversation between friends can sound as melodic as a scripted song.

The plague of racism is insidious, entering into our minds as smoothly and quietly and invisibly as floating airborne microbes enter into our bodies to find lifelong purchase in our bloodstreams.

I realize that living well is an art which can be developed.

An assurance that the world owes you nothing and that every gift is exactly that, a gift.

It is imperative that a woman keep her sense of humor intact and at the ready.

The giver is as enriched as is the recipient.

Each of us must care enough for ourselves to be ready and able to come to our own self-defense.

Each of us has the right and the responsibility to assess the roads which lie ahead, and those over which we have traveled.

The judicious response to a gibe can disarm the rude person, removing the power to injure.

We can too easily become what we are called with all the unwelcome responsibilities the title makes us heir to.

I answer the heroic question, “Death, where is thy sting?” with “It is here in my heart and mind and memories.”

Nature will not abide a vacuum, and because we have let the positive particulars go, they have been replaced with degeneracy, indifference, and vice.

We should pluck up the courage to win, to win back our finer and kinder and healthier selves.

It seems easier to lie prone than to press against the law of gravity and raise the body onto its feet and persist in remaining vertical.

Actions can only reproduce themselves.

If the emperor is standing in my living room stripped to the buff, nothing should prevent me from saying that since he has no clothes on, he is not ready for public congress.

If growing up is painful for the Southern Black girl, being aware of her displacement is the rust on the razor that threatens the throat.

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