1. You are the sum total of everything you’ve ever seen, heard, eaten, smelled, been told, forgot – it’s all there. Everything influences each of us, and because of that I try to make sure that my experiences are positive.

- Maya Angelou

2. If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded.

- Maya Angelou

3. When you know you are of worth — not asking it but knowing it — you walk into a room with a particular power.

- Maya Angelou

4. 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.

- Maya Angelou

5. Human beings are more alike than unalike. Whether in Paris, Texas, or Paris, France, we all want to have good jobs where we are needed and respected and paid just a little more than we deserve. We want healthy children, safe streets, to be loved and have the unmitigated gall to accept love.

- Maya Angelou

6. 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.

- Maya Angelou

7. We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.

- Maya Angelou

8. Life is pure adventure, and the sooner we realize that, the quicker we will be able to treat life as art.

- Maya Angelou

9. I try to see every day as a celebration.

- Maya Angelou

10. We spend precious hours fearing the inevitable. It would be wise to use that time adoring our families, cherishing our friends and living our lives.

- Maya Angelou

11. Talent is like electricity. We don’t understand electricity. We use it.

- Maya Angelou

12. Live as though life was created for you.

- Maya Angelou

13. I was told many years ago by my grandmother who raised me: If somebody puts you on a road and you don’t feel comfortable on it and you look ahead and you don’t like the destination and you look behind and you don’t want to return to that place, step off the road.

- Maya Angelou

14. Pretty women wonder where my secret lies. I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size But when I start to tell them, They think I’m telling lies. I say, It’s in the reach of my arms The span of my hips, The stride of my step, The curl of my lips. I’m a woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, That’s me.

- Maya Angelou

15. Life is going to give you just what you put in it. Put your whole heart in everything you do, and pray, then you can wait.

- Maya Angelou

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

- Maya Angelou

17. Don’t let the man bring you down.

- Maya Angelou

18. You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.

- Maya Angelou

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

- Maya Angelou

20. 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.

- Maya Angelou

21. When you wish someone joy, you wish them peace, love, prosperity, happiness… all the good things.

- Maya Angelou

22. You can’t get too high for somebody to bring you down.

- Maya Angelou

23. Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean.

- Maya Angelou

24. Anything that works against you can also work for you once you understand the Principle of Reverse.

- Maya Angelou

25. Surviving is important. Thriving is elegant.

- Maya Angelou

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

- Maya Angelou

27. Whining is not only graceless, but can be dangerous. It can alert a brute that a victim is in the neighborhood.

- Maya Angelou

28. I want to thank you, Lord, for life and all that’s in it. Thank you for the day and for the hour, and the minute.

- Maya Angelou

29. This is what I am learning, at 82 years old: the main thing is to be in love with the search for truth.

- Maya Angelou

30. There is a very fine line between loving life and being greedy for it.

- Maya Angelou

31. I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.

- Maya Angelou

32. Ain’t nothin’ to it, but to do it.

- Maya Angelou

33. You may shoot me with your words, you may cut me with your eyes, you may kill me with your hatefulness, but still, like air, I’ll rise!

- Maya Angelou

34. We are here to love each other. That is why you are alive. That is what life is for.

- Maya Angelou

35. To those who have given up on love: I say, ‘Trust life a little bit.’

- Maya Angelou

36. Suddenly we see that love costs all we are, and will ever be. Yet it is only love which sets us free.

- Maya Angelou

37. We are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike.

- Maya Angelou

38. A leader sees greatness in other people. He nor she can be much of a leader if all she sees is herself.

- Maya Angelou

39. I believe that the most important single thing, beyond discipline and creativity is daring to dare.

- Maya Angelou

40. You listen with interest. That gives some sense of confidence to the speaker.

- Maya Angelou

41. The sisters and brothers that you meet give you the materials which your character uses to build itself. It is said that some people are born great, others achieve it, some have it thrust upon them. In truth, the ways in which your character is built have to do with all three of those. Those around you, those you choose, and those who choose you.

- Maya Angelou

42. The children to whom we read simple stories may or may not show gratitude, but each boon we give strengthens the pillars of the world.

- Maya Angelou

43. The idea is to write it so that people hear it and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the heart.

- Maya Angelou

44. God puts rainbows in the clouds so that each of us – in the dreariest and most dreaded moments – can see a possibility of hope.

- Maya Angelou

45. You can’t really know where you are going until you know where you have been.

- Maya Angelou

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

- Maya Angelou

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

- Maya Angelou

48. Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for all women.

- Maya Angelou

49. Success is loving life and daring to live it.

- Maya Angelou

50. When we find someone who is brave, fun, intelligent, and loving, we have to thank the universe.

- Maya Angelou

51. One isn’t necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential.

- Maya Angelou

52. Strong women- precious jewels all- their humanness is evident in their accessibility. We are able to enter into the spirit of these women and rejoice in their warmth and courage.

- Maya Angelou

53. The only way you can be a mark is if you want something for nothing. If you’re greedy, you’re set up.

- Maya Angelou

54. I want you to learn that you cannot have anything without working for it.

- Maya Angelou

55. A mother’s love liberates.

- Maya Angelou

56. You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead pursue the things you love doing and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off of you.

- Maya Angelou

57. Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him.

- Maya Angelou

58. I not only have the right to stand up for myself, but I have the responsibility. I can’t ask somebody else to stand up for me if I won’t stand up for myself. And once you stand up for yourself, you’d be surprised that people say, ‘Can I be of help?’

- Maya Angelou

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

- Maya Angelou

60. A woman who is convinced that she deserves to accept only the best challenges herself to give the best. Then she is living phenomenally.

- Maya Angelou

61. A friend may be waiting behind a stranger’s face.

- Maya Angelou

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

- Maya Angelou

63. The real difficulty is to overcome how you think about yourself. If we don’t have that we never grow, we never learn, and sure as hell we should never teach.

- Maya Angelou

64. My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy.

- Maya Angelou

65. While I know myself as a creation of God, I am also obligated to realize and remember that everyone else and everything else are also God’s creation.

- Maya Angelou

66. You can ask forgiveness of others, but in the end the real forgiveness is in one’s own self.

- Maya Angelou

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

- Maya Angelou

68. We need much less than we think we need.

- Maya Angelou

69. I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

- Maya Angelou

70. When I forgive other people, I let them go, I free them from my ignorance. And as soon as I do, I feel lighter, brighter and better.

- Maya Angelou

71. We allow our ignorance to prevail upon us and make us think we can survive alone, alone in patches, alone in groups, alone in races, even alone in genders.

- Maya Angelou

72. Home is a refuge not only from the world, but a refuge from my worries, my troubles, my concerns.

- Maya Angelou

73. Most people don’t grow up. Most people age. They find parking spaces, honor their credit cards, get married, have children, and call that maturity. What that is, is aging.

- Maya Angelou

74. I never have written every day. When I’m writing a book, I write Monday through Friday. I always try to take Saturday and pretend to have some sanity.

- Maya Angelou

75. I’ve learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you’ll miss them when they’re gone from your life.

- Maya Angelou

76. When we give cheerfully and accept gratefully, everyone is blessed.

- Maya Angelou

77. We cannot change the past, but we can change our attitude toward it. Uproot guilt and plant forgiveness. Tear out arrogance and seed humility. Exchange love for hate – thereby, making the present comfortable and the future promising.

- Maya Angelou

78. Stepping onto a brand-new path is difficult, but not more difficult than remaining in a situation, which is not nurturing to the whole woman.

- Maya Angelou

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

- Maya Angelou

80. Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with shades of deeper meaning.

- Maya Angelou

81. Let gratitude be the pillow upon which you kneel to say your nightly prayer. And let faith be the bridge you build to overcome evil and welcome good.

- Maya Angelou

82. If I am not good to myself, how can I expect anyone else to be good to me?

- Maya Angelou

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

- Maya Angelou

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

- Maya Angelou

85. Each person deserves a day away in which no problems are confronted, no solutions searched for.

- Maya Angelou

86. Each of us, famous or infamous, is a role model for somebody, and if we aren’t, we should behave as though we are — cheerful, kind, loving, courteous. Because you can be sure someone is watching and taking deliberate and diligent notes.

- Maya Angelou

87. My work is to be honest. My work is to try to think clearly, then have the courage to make sure that what I say is the truth.

- Maya Angelou

88. My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.

- Maya Angelou

89. I’ve learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow.

- Maya Angelou

90. 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.

- Maya Angelou

91. To those who are given much, much is expected.

- Maya Angelou

92. Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can’t practice any other virtue consistently. We can’t be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.

- Maya Angelou

93. It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.

- Maya Angelou

94. When I look back, I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature. If I were a young person today, trying to gain a sense of myself in the world, I would do that again by reading, just as I did when I was young.

- Maya Angelou

95. I do my best because I’m counting on you counting on me.

- Maya Angelou

96. I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way (s)he handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.

- Maya Angelou

97. There’s a world of difference between truth and facts. Facts can obscure truth.

- Maya Angelou

98. When you know you are of worth, you don’t have to raise your voice, you don’t have to become rude, you don’t have to become vulgar; you just are. And you are like the sky is, as the air is, the same way water is wet. It doesn’t have to protest.

- Maya Angelou

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

- Maya Angelou

100. I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver.

- Maya Angelou

101. Those who have something to say accept the fact that that’s lonely. One already knows that there will be adversaries.

- Maya Angelou

102. We are only as blind as we want to be.

- Maya Angelou

103. Grace is like a lake of drinkable water right outside your door. But you stay inside and die of thirst.

- Maya Angelou

104. You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.

- Maya Angelou

105. If a person – any human being – is told often enough, ‘You are nothing. You are nothing. You account for nothing. You count for nothing. You are less than a human being. I have no visibility of you,’ the person finally begins to believe it.

- Maya Angelou

106. 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.

- Maya Angelou

107. The problem I have with haters is that they see my glory, but they don’t know my story.

- Maya Angelou

108. If you have only one smile in you, give it to the people you love. Don’t be surly at home, then go out in the street and start grinning ‘Good morning’ at total strangers.

- Maya Angelou

109. I’m really saddened by the attempts to separate and polarize. This is a time when we have hungry people, people out of work, and people out of spirit. This is a time where we need to uplift, not to separate.

- Maya Angelou

110. Women should be tough, tender, laugh as much as possible, and live long lives.

- Maya Angelou

111. I’ve learned that every day you should reach out and touch someone. People love a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back.

- Maya Angelou

112. If I have a monument in this world, it is my son.

- Maya Angelou

113. I think a hero is any person really intent on making this a better place for all people.

- Maya Angelou

114. Hate, it has caused a lot of problems in the world, but has not solved one yet.

- Maya Angelou

115. 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 something back.

- Maya Angelou

116. 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.

- Maya Angelou

117. Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.

- Maya Angelou

118. I’ve learned that even when I have pains, I don’t have to be one.

- Maya Angelou

119. The ship of my life may or may not be sailing on calm and amiable seas. The challenging days of my existence may or may not be bright and promising. Stormy or sunny days, glorious or lonely nights, I maintain an attitude of gratitude. If I insist on being pessimistic, there is always tomorrow. Today I am blessed.

- Maya Angelou

120. Never make someone a priority when all you are to them is an option.

- Maya Angelou

121. Some people cannot see a good thing when it is right here, right now. Others can sense a good thing coming when it is days, months, or miles away.

- Maya Angelou

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

- Maya Angelou

123. If I’m going to a new country, I try to learn something about the language and the culture, so I don’t just go bumbling over things.

- Maya Angelou

124. I’ve learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision.

- Maya Angelou

125. Hoping for the best, prepared for the worst, and unsurprised by anything in between.

- Maya Angelou

126. When was the last time anyone told you how important you are?

- Maya Angelou