Maya Angelou
I answer the heroic question "Death, where is they sting?" with "It is here in my heart and mind and memories."
I am overwhelmed by the grace and persistence of my people.
How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!
For Africa to me... is more than a glamorous fact. It is a historical truth. No man can know where he is going unless he knows exactly where he has been and exactly how he arrived at his present place.
Effective action is always unjust.
Education helps one case cease being intimidated by strange situations.
Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can't practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.
Children's talent to endure stems from their ignorance of alternatives.
Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean.
At fifteen life had taught me undeniably that surrender, in its place, was as honorable as resistance, especially if one had no choice.
As far as I knew white women were never lonely, except in books. White men adored them, Black men desired them and Black women worked for them.
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.
All men are prepared to accomplish the incredible if their ideals are threatened.
All great achievements require time.
Achievement brings its own anticlimax.
A bizarre sensation pervades a relationship of pretense. No truth seems true. A simple morning's greeting and response appear loaded with innuendo and fraught with implications. Each nicety becomes more sterile and each withdrawal more permanent.