Maya Angelou

No sun outlasts its sunset, but will rise again and bring the dawn.

Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise. I rise. I rise.

You can never be great at anything unless you love it.

I thought if war did not include killing, I'd like to see one every year.

Don't bring negative to my door.

We are missing Michael. But we do know we had him, and we are the world.

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

I answer the heroic question, 'Death, where is thy sting?' with 'It is in my heart and mind and memories.

Soft you day, be velvet soft, My true love approaches, Look you bright, you dusty sun, Array your golden coaches. Soft you wind, be soft as silk My true love is speaking. Hold you birds, your silver throats, His golden voice I'm seeking. Come you death, in haste, do come My shroud of black be weaving, Quiet my heart, be deathly quiet, My true love is leaving.

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

I don't believe an accident of birth makes people sisters or brothers. It makes them siblings, gives them mutuality of parentage. Sisterhood and brotherhood is a condition people have to work at.

If more Africans had eaten missionaries, the continent would be in better shape.

Hope for the best, be prepared for the worse. Life is shocking, but you must never appear to be shocked. For no matter how bad it is it could be worse and no matter how good it is it could be better.

You can only become great at something you are willing to sacrifice for

As soon as healing takes place, go out and heal somebody else.

I make writing as much a part of my life as I do eating or listening to music.

The woman who survives intact and happy must be at once tender and tough.

You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them. Try to be a rainbow in someone else's cloud. Do not complain. Make every effort to change things you do not like. If you cannot make a change, change the way you have been thinking. You might find a new solution.

Because of the routines we follow, we often forget that life is an ongoing adventure. . . Life is pure adventure, and the sooner we realize that, the quicker we will be able to treat life as art: to bring all our energies to each encounter, to remain flexible enough to notice and admit when what we expected to happen did not happen. We need to remember that we are created creative and can invent new scenarios as frequently as they are needed.

Determine to live life with flair and laughter.

You are the sum total of everything you've seen, heard, eaten, smelled, been told, forgot- it's all right there.