Maya Angelou

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.

Having courage does not mean we are unafraid.

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

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

You have to develop ways so that you can take up for yourself, and then you take up for someone else. And so sooner or later, you have enough courage to really stand up for the human race and say, 'I'm a representative. '

They who have health have hope; and they who have hope, have everything.

I'm not sure if resilience is ever achieved alone. Experience allows us to learn from example. But if we have someone who loves us-I don't mean who indulges us, but who loves us enough to be on our side-then it's easier to grow resilience, to grow belief in self, to grow self-esteem. And it's self-esteem that allows a person to stand up.

There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.

You don't need another person, place or thing to make you whole. God already did that. Your job is to know it.

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.

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.

Anger is like fire. It burns all clean.

We are more alike than unalike.

Some of us are timid. We think we have something to lose so we don't try for that next hill.

The truth brings the past into the present and prepares us for the future. That's what truth does

The thorn from the bush one has planted, nourished and pruned pricks more deeply and draws more blood.

All great acheivements require time.

People have to feel needed. Frequently, we just offer a job and 'perks.' We don't always offer people a purpose. When people feel there is a purpose and that they're needed, there's not much else to do except let them do the work.

Now, after years of observation and enough courage to admit what I have observed, I try to plant peace if I do not want discord; to plant loyalty and honesty if I want to avoid betrayal and lies.

I had to trust life and believe that life loved the person who dared to live it.

Laugh as often as possible. You must. Because the world will offer you every reason to weep. So as often as possible, you laugh. That, I think, is part of the Great Love.