Maya Angelou

I have a feeling that I make a very good friend, and I'm a good mother, and a good sister, and a good citizen. I am involved in life itself - all of it. And I have a lot of energy and a lot of nerve.

Don't let the incidents which take place in life bring you low. And certainly don't whine. You can be brought low, that's OK, but don't be reduced by them. Just say, 'That's life.'

I'm grateful to intelligent people. That doesn't mean educated. That doesn't mean intellectual. I mean really intelligent. What black old people used to call 'mother wit' means intelligence that you had in your mother's womb. That's what you rely on. You know what's right to do.

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

I believe we are still so innocent. The species are still so innocent that a person who is apt to be murdered believes that the murderer, just before he puts the final wrench on his throat, will have enough compassion to give him one sweet cup of water.

Writing and cookery are just two different means of communication.

Loving someone liberates the lover as well as the beloved. And that kind of love comes with age.

In a magazine, one can get - from cover to cover - 15 to 20 different ideas about life and how to live it.

In a world so rife with vulgarity, with brutality and violence, love exists. I’m grateful to know that it exists.

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.

Time itself is an individual gift. It is wise to cherish it carefully and give it away generously.

I am grateful to be a woman. I must have done something great in another life.

Hope does not take away your problems. It can lift you above them.

Cooking certain dishes, like roast pork, reminds me of my mother.

The poetry you read has been written for you, each of you - black, white, Hispanic, man, woman, gay, straight.

One of the wonderful things about Oprah: She teaches you to keep on stepping.

Love liberates. It doesn't just hold - that's ego. Love liberates. It doesn't bind.

Modesty is a learned affectation. And as soon as life slams the modest person against the wall, that modesty drops.

The nice thing about HOPE is that you can give it to someone else, someone who needs it even more than you do, and you will find you have not given yours away at all.

Don't let anybody raise you. You've been raised.

It is only out of ignorance that people are cruel, because they really don't think it will come back.