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We really are 15 countries, and it's remarkable that each of us thinks we represent the real America. The Midwesterner in Kansas, the black American in Durham - both are certain they are the real American.

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
Real
Atheism
Midwesterners
Really
Justice
Durham
Thinking
American
Kansas
Culture
Represent
Black
Remarkable
Certain
Diversity
America
Thinks
Country
Countries
Midwesterner

More quotes by Maya Angelou

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Be certain that you do not die without having done something wonderful for humanity.
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I always felt, if I can get to a library, I'll be OK.
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People don't always remember what you say or even what you do, but they always remember how you make them feel.
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I think music is one of the hero/sheroes of the African-American existence.
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It is better to control oneself, if one can, and not hit back. But on certain occasions, it is imperative to defend oneself. I don't think it's fair to ask anybody not to defend herself or himself.
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The thorn from the bush one has planted, nourished and pruned pricks more deeply and draws more blood.
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People will never forget how you made them feel.
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The plague of racism is insidious, entering into our minds as smoothly and quietly and invisibly as floating airborne microbes enter into our bodies to find lifelong purchase in our bloodstreams.
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One isn't necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential.
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By love I don't mean indulgence. I do not mean sentimentality. And in this instance, I don't even mean romance. I mean that condition that allowed humans to dream of God.That condition that allowed the dumb to write spirituals and Russian songs and Irish lilts. That is love, and it's so much larger than anything I can conceive.
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You don't need another person, place or thing to make you whole. God already did that. Your job is to know it.
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I've tried to be totally present, so that when I'm finished with a piece of work, I'm finished. ... The work, once completed, does not need me. The work I'm working on needs my total concentration. The one that's finished doesn't belong to me anymore. It belongs to itself.
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jealousy is conceived only in insecurity and must be nourished in fear.
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I'm convinced that I'm a child of God. That's wonderful, exhilarating, liberating, full of promise. But the burden which goes along with that is, I'm convinced that everybody is a child of God. . . . I weep a lot. I thank God I laugh a lot, too. The main thing in one's own private world is to try to laugh as much as you cry.
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I know that I've been guided by God. I am obedient.
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People trying to separate people rather than bring us together... please. You don't just see it in America. It's all over the world.
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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.
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When teachers or people in authority put me down or in one way or another tried to make me feel less than equal to what they thought I should be - my mother was on my side. It was amazing.
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I do not trust people who don't love themselves and yet tell me, 'I love you.' There is an African saying which is: Be careful when a naked person offers you a shirt.
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When I forgive other people, I let them go, I free them from my ignorance. And as soon as I do, I feel lighter, brighter and better.
Maya Angelou