Quotes by Maya Angelou

Independence is a heady draught, and if you drink it in your youth, it can have the same effect on the brain as young wine does. It does not matter that its taste is not always appealing. It is addictive and with each drink you want more.

Ive learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

Ive learned that you shouldnt go through life with a catchers mitt on both hands you need to be able to throw something back.

Im just someone who likes cooking and for whom sharing food is a form of expression.

Eating is so intimate. Its very sensual. When you invite someone to sit at your table and you want to cook for them, youre inviting a person into your life.

The best comfort food will always be greens, cornbread, and fried chicken.

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

I learned a long time ago the wisest thing I can do is be on my own side, be an advocate for myself and others like me.

We are braver and wiser because they existed, those strong women and strong men... We are who we are because they were who they were. Its wise to know where you come from, who called your name.

If we accept being talked to any kind of a way, then we are telling ourselves we are not quite worth the best. And if we have the effrontery to talk to anybody with less than courtesy, we tell ourselves and the world we are not very intelligent.

Im convinced of this: Good done anywhere is good done everywhere. For a change, start by speaking to people rather than walking by them like theyre stones that dont matter. As long as youre breathing, its never too late to do some good.

Its good to remember that in crises, natural crises, human beings forget for awhile their ignorances, their biases, their prejudices. For a little while, neighbors help neighbors and strangers help strangers.

You may write me down in history with your bitter, twisted lines. You may trod me in the very dirt, but still, like dust, Ill rise.

History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.

Wont it be wonderful when black history and native American history and Jewish history and all of U.S. history is taught from one book. Just U.S. history.

The more you know of your history, the more liberated you are.

Elimination of illiteracy is as serious an issue to our history as the abolition of slavery.

Hold those things that tell your history and protect them. During slavery, who was able to read or write or keep anything? The ability to have somebody to tell your story to is so important. It says: I was here. I may be sold tomorrow. But you know I was here.

I know that when I pray, something wonderful happens. Not just to the person or persons for whom Im praying, but also something wonderful happens to me. Im grateful that Im heard.

The thing to do, it seems to me, is to prepare yourself so you can be a rainbow in somebody elses cloud. Somebody who may not look like you. May not call God the same name you call God - if they call God at all. I may not dance your dances or speak your language. But be a blessing to somebody. Thats what I think.