Maya Angelou – Empowering Words of Wisdom

If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.

You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated.

Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.

My mission in life is not merely to survive but to thrive, and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.

I can be changed by what happens to me, but I refuse to be reduced by it.

We may encounter many defeats, but we must not be defeated.

You are enough, just as you are.

We need much less than we think we need.

I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

You can only become truly accomplished at something you love.

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

We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.

I’ve learned that making a ‘living’ is not the same thing as making a ‘life.’

Life loves the liver of it.

One isn’t necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential.

A wise woman wishes to be no one’s enemy; a wise woman refuses to be anyone’s victim.

It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.

Maya Angelou – Empowering Words of Wisdom part 2

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 work very hard, and I play very hard. I’m grateful for life. And I live it – I believe life loves the liver of it. I live it.

My great hope is to laugh as much as I cry; to get my work done and try to love somebody and have the courage to accept the love in return.

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

Nothing will work unless you do.

You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.

Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can’t practice any other virtue consistently.

Hope and fear cannot occupy the same space. Invite one to stay.

I’m grateful to be a woman. I must have done something great in another life.

You can’t forgive without loving. And I don’t mean sentimentality. I don’t mean mush. I mean having enough courage to stand up and say, ‘I forgive. I’m finished with it.’

In the flush of love’s light, we dare be brave. And suddenly we see that love costs all we are, and will ever be. Yet it is only love which sets us free.

When you know better, you do better.

I don’t trust people who don’t love themselves and tell me, ‘I love you’.

The truth is, no one of us can be free until everybody is free.

Love is that condition in the human spirit so profound that it allows me to survive, and better than that, to thrive with passion, compassion, and style.

Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future, and renders the present inaccessible.

The love of the family, the love of the person, can heal. It heals the scars left by a larger society. A massive, powerful society.

I learned a long time ago the wisest thing I can do is be on my own side.

You are the sum total of everything you’ve ever seen, heard, eaten, smelled, been told, forgot – it’s all there. Everything influences each of us, and because of that I try to make sure that my experiences are positive.

You alone are enough. You have nothing to prove to anybody.

If you’re always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be.

It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.

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

If you are always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be.

A woman’s heart should be so hidden in God that a man has to seek Him just to find her.

A wise woman wishes to be no one’s enemy; a wise woman refuses to be anyone’s victim.

We can learn to see each other and see ourselves in each other and recognize that human beings are more alike than we are unalike.

Don’t let others define you. You define yourself.