Maya Angelou Quotes That Will Inspire You to Live Your Best Life

1. Can I do it? I'd rather not try and fail.""That's stupid talk, Maya. Every try will not succeed. But if you're going to live, live at all, your business is trying. And if you fail once, so what? Old folks say, Every shuteye ain't sleep and every goodbye ain't gone. You fail, you get up and try again. The Heart of a Woman

2. Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently.

3. 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.

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

5. I don't trust people who don't 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.

6. I had given up some youth for knowledge, but my gain was more valuable than the loss I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

7. I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life's a bitch. You've got to go out and kick ass.

8. I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw some things back.

9. If you're always trying to be normal you will never know how amazing you can be.

10. In all the world, there is no heart for me like yours.In all the world, there is no love for you like mine.

11. Love is like a virus. It can happen to anybody at any time.

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

13. 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.

14. The desire to reach for the stars is ambitious. The desire to reach hearts is wise.

15. There is nothing so pitiful as a young cynic because he has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing.

16. There were people who went to sleep last night, poor and rich and white and black, but they will never wake again. And those dead folks would give anything at all for just five minutes of this weather or ten minutes of plowing. So you watch yourself about complaining. 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.

17. There's a world of difference between truth and facts. Facts can obscure truth.

18. We, unaccustomed to courageexiles from delightlive coiled in shells of lonelinessuntil love leaves its high holy templeand comes into our sightto liberate us into life.Love arrivesand in its train come ecstasiesold memories of pleasureancient histories of pain.Yet if we are bold,love strikes away the chains of fearfrom our souls.We are weaned from our timidityIn the flush of love's lightwe dare be braveAnd suddenly we seethat love costs all we areand will ever be.Yet it is only lovewhich sets us free.

19. [Bailey] had told me once that "all knowledge was spendable currency, depending on the market. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

20. A certain person wondered whya big strong girl like mewouldn't keep a jobwhich paid a normal salary.I took my time to lead herand to read her every page.Even minimal peoplecan't survive on minimal wage.A certain person wondered whyI wait all week for you.I didn't have the wordsto describe just what you do.I said you had the motionof the ocean in your walk,and when you solve my riddlesyou don't even have to talk. I Shall Not Be Moved

21. All great achievements require time.

22. Caged BirdA free bird leaps on the back of the windand floats downstream till the current endsand dips his wing in the orange suns rays and dares to claim the sky.But a bird that stalks down his narrow cagecan seldom see through his bars of ragehis wings are clipped and his feet are tied so he opens his throat to sing.The caged bird sings with a fearful trillof things unknown but longed for stilland his tune is heard on the distant hillfor the caged bird sings of freedom.The free bird thinks of another breezeand the trade winds soft through the sighing treesand the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright lawn and he names the sky his own.But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreamshis shadow shouts on a nightmare screamhis wings are clipped and his feet are tied so he opens his throat to sing.The caged bird sings with a fearful trillof things unknown but longed for stilland his tune is heard on the distant hillfor the caged bird sings of freedom. The Complete Collected Poems

23. I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better.

24. It’s the fire in my eyes, And the flash of my teeth, The swing in my waist, And the joy in my feet. I’m a woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal Woman: Four Poems Celebrating Women

25. Living well is an art that can be developed: a love of life and ability to take great pleasure from small offerings and assurance that the world owes you nothing and that every gift is exactly that, a gift. Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now

26. Love is like a virus. It can happen to anybody at any time

27. Poetry puts starch in your backbone so you can stand, so you can compose your life.

28. 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. Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now

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

30. Though I prided myself on tender sensitivity, I have never known when a great love affair was beginning. Some barricade lies midway my mind, and I'm usually on my back scrutinising a ceiling before it is borne in on me that this is the man I fantasised in my late-night fingering. Gather Together in My Name