Maya Angelou quotes about life
33 quotations, each verified against its source and credited to the work it comes from — the wording as Maya Angelou wrote or said it, not as the internet passes it around. Drawn from the 214 in the full collection. Page 1 of 2.
Ask for what you want and be prepared to pay for what you get.
Every try will not succeed. But if you're going to live, live at all, your business is trying.
Keep on telling the truth, Maya. Stay on the stage. I don't mean the night-club stage, or the theatrical stage. I mean on the stage of life.
Because I love to live.
But ain’t I lucky I can still breathe in.
The epitome of sophistication is utter simplicity.
I am convinced that most people do not grow up. We find parking spaces and honor our credit cards. We marry and dare to have children and call that growing up. I think what we do is mostly grow old.
My life has been long, and believing that life loves the liver of it, I have dared to try many things, sometimes trembling, but daring, still.
One does not have to tell all that one knows, but we should be careful what we do say is the truth.
Blithering ignorance can be found wherever you choose to live.
What you’re supposed to do when you don’t like a thing is change it. If you can’t change it, change the way you think about it. Don’t complain.
Being a woman is hard work. Not without joy and even ecstasy, but still relentless, unending work.
Women should be tough, tender, laugh as much as possible, and live long lives.
A day away acts as a spring tonic. It can dispel rancor, transform indecision, and renew the spirit.
Life seems to love the liver of it.
Living life as art requires a readiness to forgive.
Life is pure adventure, and the sooner we realize that, the quicker we will be able to treat life as art.
It is in the search itself that one finds the ecstasy.
I try to plant peace if I do not want discord; to plant loyalty and honesty if I want to avoid betrayal and lies.
Every person needs to take one day away.
Each of us needs to withdraw from the cares which will not withdraw from us.
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 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.
From the books
Every book with a quote collection of its own, each line verified against the text.
- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings quotes · 41 lines (1969)
The Friday Letter
One story from the atlas, every Friday.
No algorithms chasing attention. A work, a place, and the connection between them — with the history checked.