1,440 Quotes by maya angelou

And my seven-year-old world humpty-dumptied, never to be put back together again.

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

Self-pity in its early stages is as snug as a feather mattress. Only when it hardens does it become uncomfortable.

Since time is the one immaterial object which we cannot influence—neither speed up nor slow down, add to nor diminish—it is an imponderably valuable gift.

I thought of human beings, as far back as I had read, of our deeds and didoes. According to some scientists, we were born to forever crawl in swamps, but for some not yet explained reason, we decided to stand erect and, despite gravity's pull and push, to remain standing. We, carnivorous beings, decided not to eat our brothers and sisters but to try to respect them. And further, to try to love them.

The Black child must learn early to allow laughter to fill his mouth or the million small cruelties he encounters will congeal and clog his throat.

You can only become great at that thing you're willing to sacrifice for.

There is nothing more appalling than a constantly morose child.

I was going to look like one of the sweet little white girls who were everybody's dream of what was right with the world.