The voices / 279 fragments

Maya Angelou

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Name supplied in the contributor-provided quotation collection. Basic attribution label; identity, lifetime and quotation authenticity have not been independently verified.

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Archive entries

01Undated

I don't trust people who don't love themselves and tell me, 'I love you.' ... There is an African saying which is: Be careful when a naked person offers you a shirt.

Maya Angelou / quote

02Undated

Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time.

Maya Angelou / quote

03Undated

Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.

Maya Angelou / quote

04Undated

First best is falling in love. Second best is being in love. Least best is falling out of love. But any of it is better than never having been in love.

Maya Angelou / quote

05Undated

We, unaccustomed to courageexiles from delightlive coiled in shells of lonelinessuntil love leaves its high holy templeand comes into our sightto liberate us into life.Love arrivesand in its train come ecstasiesold memories of pleasureancient histories of pain.Yet if we are bold,love strikes away the chains of fearfrom our souls.We are weaned from our timidityIn the flush of love's lightwe dare be braveAnd suddenly we seethat love costs all we areand will ever be.Yet it is only lovewhich sets us free.

Maya Angelou / quote

06Undated

In all the world, there is no heart for me like yours.In all the world, there is no love for you like mine.

Maya Angelou / quote

07Undated

Love is like a virus. It can happen to anybody at any time.

Maya Angelou / quote

08Undated

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.

Maya Angelou / quote

09Undated

When Great Trees FallWhen great trees fall,rocks on distant hills shudder,lions hunker downin tall grasses,and even elephantslumber after safety.When great trees fallin forests,small things recoil into silence,their senseseroded beyond fear.When great souls die,the air around us becomeslight, rare, sterile.We breathe, briefly.Our eyes, briefly,see witha hurtful clarity.Our memory, suddenly sharpened,examines,gnaws on kind wordsunsaid,promised walksnever taken.Great souls die andour reality, bound tothem, takes leave of us.Our souls,dependent upon theirnurture,now shrink, wizened.Our minds, formedand informed by theirradiance,fall away.We are not so much maddenedas reduced to the unutterable ignoranceof dark, coldcaves.And when great souls die,after a period peace blooms,slowly and alwaysirregularly. Spaces fillwith a kind ofsoothing electric vibration.Our senses, restored, neverto be the same, whisper to us.They existed. They existed.We can be. Be and bebetter. For they existed.

Maya Angelou / quote

10Undated

I am convinced that most people do not grow up...We marry and dare to have children and call that growing up. I think what we do is mostly grow old. We carry accumulation of years in our bodies, and on our faces, but generally our real selves, the children inside, are innocent and shy as magnolias.

Maya Angelou / quote

11Undated

My life has been one great big joke,A dance that's walked,A song that's spoke,I laugh so hard I almost choke,When I think about myself.

Maya Angelou / quote

12Undated

There is a very fine line between loving life and being greedy for it.

Maya Angelou / quote

13Undated

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

Maya Angelou / quote

14Undated

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

Maya Angelou / quote

15Undated

What you're supposed to do when you don't like a thing is change it. If you can't change it, change the way you think about it. Don't complain.

Maya Angelou / quote

16Undated

I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.(Popular misquote of "You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.")

Maya Angelou / quote

17Undated

Ask for what you want and be prepared to get it!

Maya Angelou / quote

18Undated

The desire to reach for the stars is ambitious. The desire to reach hearts is wise.

Maya Angelou / quote

19Undated

Stepping onto a brand-new path is difficult, but not more difficult than remaining in a situation, which is not nurturing to the whole woman.

Maya Angelou / quote

20Undated

Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him.

Maya Angelou / quote

21Undated

I sustain myself with the love of family.

Maya Angelou / quote

22Undated

A Woman in harmony with her spirit is like a river flowing.She goes where she will without pretense and arrives at her destination prepared to be herself and only herself

Maya Angelou / quote

23Undated

All great achievements require time.

Maya Angelou / quote

24Undated

Nothing will work unless you do.

Maya Angelou / quote