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Living well is an art that can be developed: a love of life and ability to take great pleasure from small offerings and assurance that the world owes you nothing and that every gift is exactly that, a gift.

Maya Angelou

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Maya Angelou
Age: 86 †
Born: 1928
Born: April 4
Died: 2014
Died: May 28
Author
Autobiographer
Comedian
Dancer
Essayist
Film Director
Film Producer
Human Rights Activist
Journalist
Novelist
Playwright
Politician
St. Louis
Missouri
Marguerite Annie Johnson
Marguerite Johnson
Marguerite Ann Johnson
Marguerite Anne Johnson
Nothing
Philosophy
Take
Small
Offerings
Great
Pleasure
Owes
Every
Ability
Assurance
Love
Living
Offering
Life
Art
Developed
World
Wells
Gift
Well
Exactly

More quotes by Maya Angelou

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I would be stupid not to be on my own side. But I'm a human being, too. And I'm on the side of human beings, rather than on the side of crocodiles.
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I, with millions of other Americans, have the same dream Martin Luther King Jr. had when I wake up I wish some of the things I dreamt would be true. I wish that little black and white boys and girls would hold hands without being shocked at their nearness to each other and say in a natural way, we have overcome.
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A great soul serves everyone all the time. A great soul never dies. It brings us together again and again.
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My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy. That some people, unable to go to school, were more educated and more intelligent than college professors.
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The caged bird sings with a fearful trill, of things unknown, but longed for still, and his tune is heard on the distant hill, for the caged bird sings of freedom.
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I think we have systematically and critically harmed ourselves and many young people by advising them not to try things.
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I would be a liar, a hypocrite, or a fool - and I'm not any of those - to say that I don't write for the reader. I do. But for the reader who hears, who really will work at it, going behind what I seem to say. So I write for myself and that reader who will pay the dues.
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All riddles are blues, / And all blues are sad, / And I'm only mentioning / Some blues I've had.
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Modesty is a learned affectation. It's no good. Humility is great, because humility says, 'There was someone before me. I'm following in somebody's footsteps.'
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The sisters and brothers that you meet give you the materials which your character uses to build itself. It is said that some people are born great, others achieve it, some have it thrust upon them. In truth, the ways in which your character is built have to do with all three of those. Those around you, those you choose, and those who choose you.
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I do not need to know all things. I remind myself that it is sufficient that I know what I know and know that without believing that I will always know what I know or that what I know will always be true.
Maya Angelou
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I agree with Balzac and 19th-century writers, black and white, who say, 'I write for money.' Yes, I think everybody should be paid handsomely I insist on it, and I pay people who work for me, or with me, handsomely.
Maya Angelou
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I was raped when I was very young. I told my brother the name of the person who had done it. Within a few days the man was killed. In my child's mind--seven and a half years old--I thought my voice had killed him. So I stopped talking for five years.
Maya Angelou
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Precious jewel, you glow, you shine, reflecting all the good things in the world. Just look at yourself.
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The Holy Spirit upon my left leads my feet without ceasing into the camp of the righteous and into the tents of the free.
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When I'm writing, I write. And then it's as if the muse is convinced that I'm serious and says, 'Okay. Okay. I'll come.'
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Wouldn't take nothing for my journey now.
Maya Angelou
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Continue to be bold, courageous. Try to choose the wisest thing and once you've chosen the wisest thing go out and try to achieve it. Be it.
Maya Angelou
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I know why the caged bird sings.
Maya Angelou
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We need to not be in denial about what we've done, what we've come through. It will help us if we all do that.
Maya Angelou