Maya Angelou

You must never be defeated no matter how many defeats you encounter.

One must know not just how to accept a gift, but with what grace to share it.

I know you very well, and I know you need a good English teacher.

I was thinking about that, about the journeys in the film, journey to the roots, journey to the heart. We're all on journeys.

Those of us who have gathered here, ... we owe something from this minute on, so this gathering is not just another footnote on the pages of history.

Just as hope rings through laughter, it can also shine through tears.

If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform a million realities.

Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told ''I'm with you kid. Let's go.''

The need for change bulldozed road down the center of my mind.

Some critics will write 'Maya Angelou is a natural writer' - which is right after being a natural heart surgeon.

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.

I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself.

I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver.

How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes

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

this is my life. it is my one time to be me. i want to experience every good thing.

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.

All great achievements require time.

At the worst of times, there's the possibility of seeing hope, ... That's why that song is so important right now.

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

I am serious, so I laugh a lot. You need to laugh. You don't laugh enough. I don't trust anyone who doesn't laugh.

Anyone of us can be a rainbow in somebody's clouds. I want the University of Cincinnati to be a rainbow in the clouds. The University of Cincinnati is really a possibility of hope it is a rainbow.

He loved her. ... she can be talking to me about regular things but when she mentions Martin, her voice always falls a little bit and you can sense the intimacy. ... The sweetness of that relationship was always evident.

We spend precious hours fearing the inevitable. It would be wise to use that time adoring our families, cherishing our friends, and living our lives.

Each of us has that right, that possibility, to invent ourselves daily. If a person does not invent herself, she will be invented. So, to be bodacious enough to invent ourselves is wise.