Quotes by Maya Angelou

The need for change bulldozed a road down the center of my mind.

The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.

I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself.

Ive read everything Thomas Wolfe ever wrote; my brother and I memorized whole chapters of You Cant Go Home Again and Look Homeward, Angel.

Information helps you to see that youre not alone. That theres somebody in Mississippi and somebody in Tokyo who all have wept, whove all longed and lost, whove all been happy. So the library helps you to see, not only that you are not alone, but that youre not really any different from everyone else.

Politicians must set their aims for the high ground and according to our various leanings, Democratic, Republican, Independent, we will follow. Politicians must be told if they continue to sink into the mud of obscenity, they will proceed alone.

The love of the family, the love of one person can heal. It heals the scars left by a larger society. A massive, powerful society.

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

“This is a wonderful day, I have never seen this one before.”

“Since time is the one immaterial object which we cannot influence—neither speed up nor slow down, add to nor diminish—it is an imponderably valuable gift.”

“Theres a world of difference between truth and facts. Facts can obscure truth.”

“First best is falling in love. Second best is being in love. Least best is falling out of love. But any of it is better than never having been in love.”

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

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

“My great hope is to laugh as much as I cry; to get my work done and try to love somebody and have the courage to accept the love in return.”

“I find relief from the questions only when I concede that I am not obliged to know everything. I remind myself it is sufficient to know what I know, and that what I know, may not always be true.”

“I dont trust people who dont love themselves and tell me, I love you. ... There is an African saying which is: Be careful when a naked person offers you a shirt.”

“To those who are given much, much is expected.”

“It was awful to be Negro and have no control over my life. It was brutal to be young and already trained to sit quietly and listen to charges brought against my color with no chance of defense. We should all be dead. I thought I should like to see us all dead, one on top of the other. A pyramid of flesh with the whitefolks on the bottom, as the broad base, then the Indians with their silly tomahawks and teepees and wigwams and treaties, the Negroes with their mops and recipes and cotton sacks and spirituals sticking out of their mouths. The Dutch children should all stumble in their wooden shoes and break their necks. The French should choke to death on the Louisiana Purchase (1803) while silkworms ate all the Chinese with their stupid pigtails. As a species, we were an abomination. All of us.”

“No matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow.”