Maya Angelou Quotes
Famous & Inspirational Angelou Quotes
The following are a collection of our favorite Maya Angelou quotes. Many of Angelou's speeches and writings have been made famous due to her activity in the Civil Rights movement. In this collection we've also included what we feel are some of the most inspirational Angelou quotes.
"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."
"The fact that the adult American Negro female emerges a formidable character is often met with amazement, distaste and even belligerance. It is seldom accepted as an inevitable outcome of the struggle won by survivors, and deserves respect if not enthusiastic acceptance."
"I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life's a bitch. You've got to go out and kick ass."
"The quality of strength lined with tenderness is an unbeatable combination, as are intelligence and necessity when unblunted by formal education."
"Children's talent to endure stems from their ignorance of alternatives."
"I find it interesting that the meanest life, the poorest existence, is attributed to God's will, but as human beings become more affluent, as their living standard and style begin to ascend the material scale, God descends the scale of responsibility at a commensurate speed."
"We allow our ignorance to prevail upon us and make us think we can survive alone, alone in patches, alone in groups, alone in races, even alone in genders."
"At fifteen life had taught me undeniably that surrender, in its place, was as honorable as resistance, especially if one had no choice."
"Self-pity in its early stage is as snug as a feather mattress. Only when it hardens does it become uncomfortable."
"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."