Maya Angelou
American poet, memoirist, civil rights activist, and one of the defining literary voices of the late twentieth century. Born in 1928 in St. Louis, she lived through years of mute silence after childhood trauma, then through dancing, singing, journalism, and revolutionary work — corresponding with Malcolm X in Ghana, working on the Selma to Montgomery March with King — before her seven-volume autobiography (beginning with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings in 1969) made her one of the most-read American writers. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2010, recited On the Pulse of Morning at Bill Clinton's inauguration in 1993, and produced poetry — Phenomenal Woman, Still I Rise — that has become contemporary scripture for several generations of readers. She died in 2014 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
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quotes in library
Quotes by Maya Angelou
118 quotes“You can't really know where you are going until you know where you have been.”
pathWouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now
“Be present in all things and thankful for all things.”
presenceLetter to My Daughter
“Courage is the most important of all the virtues.”
courageLetter to My Daughter
“Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency.”
courageLetter to My Daughter
“Tell the truth to people. Most of the time it is what they need.”
truthLetter to My Daughter
“Children's talent to endure stems from their ignorance of alternatives.”
childrenLetter to My Daughter
“Pursue passion. Hard work pursues you.”
passionLetter to My Daughter
“All great achievements require time.”
timeLetter to My Daughter
“You cannot use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.”
creativityLetter to My Daughter
“Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time.”
loveLetter to My Daughter
“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.”
lifeLetter to My Daughter
“I have great respect for the past. If you don't know where you've come from, you don't know where you're going.”
pastLetter to My Daughter
“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
silenceConversations
“There is a need to find and sing our own song, to find truths we live by.”
songI Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
“You are the sum of every dream you ever dreamed.”
dreamsLetter to My Daughter
“In our bodies, we hold the wisdom of generations.”
bodyLetter to My Daughter
“Easy reading is damn hard writing.”
writingI Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
“There is more poetry in a man than in 50 women's magazines.”
poetryLetter to My Daughter
“Just like moons and like suns, with the certainty of tides, just like hopes springing high, still I'll rise.”
risingStill I Rise
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