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If I wanted to write, I had to be willing to develop a kind of concentration found mostly in people awaiting execution. I had to learn technique and surrender my ignorance.
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
Awaiting
Willing
Execution
Learn
Concentration
Write
Mostly
Found
Surrender
Wanted
Technique
Writing
Develop
Kind
People
Ignorance
More quotes by Maya Angelou
We love and lose in China, we weep on England's moors, and laugh and moan in Guinea, and thrive on Spanish shores. We seek success in Finland, are born and die in Maine. In minor ways we differ, in major we're the same.
Maya Angelou
I think Clinton, after getting into office and into Washington, was shocked at being bludgeoned. So he spent time trying to be all things to all people - one way guaranteed not to be successful or respected in a lion's den. You can't just play around with all those big cats - you've got to take somebody on.
Maya Angelou
I've learned that making a 'living' is not the same thing as 'making a life'.
Maya Angelou
I'm considered wise, and sometimes I see myself as knowing. Most of the time, I see myself as wanting to know. And I see myself as a very interested person. I've never been bored in my life.
Maya Angelou
Hope and fear cannot occupy the same space. Invite one to stay.
Maya Angelou
I have no modesty. Modesty is a learned affectation. It's like decal stuck up on a person.
Maya Angelou
Nature has no mercy at all. Nature says, I'm going to snow. If you have on a bikini and no snowshoes, that's tough. I am going to snow anyway.
Maya Angelou
We cannot change the past, but we can change our attitude toward it. Uproot guilt and plant forgiveness. Tear out arrogance and seed humility. Exchange love for hate - thereby, making the present comfortable and the future promising.
Maya Angelou
You only are free when you realize you belong no place - you belong every place - no place at all. The price is high. The reward is great.
Maya Angelou
I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better.
Maya Angelou
A wise woman wishes to be no one's enemy a wise woman refuses to be anyone's victim.
Maya Angelou
To be human is to be challenged to be more divine. Not even to try to meet such a challenge is the biggest defeat imaginable.
Maya Angelou
I'm convinced of this: Good done anywhere is good done everywhere. For a change, start by speaking to people rather than walking by them like they're stones that don't matter. As long as you're breathing, it's never too late to do some good.
Maya Angelou
If you are always trying to be normal you will never know how amazing you can be.
Maya Angelou
The charitable say in effect, 'I seem to have more than I need and you seem to have less than you need. I would like to share my excess with you.' Fine, if my excess is tangible, money or goods, and fine if not, for I learned that to be charitable with gestures and words can bring enormous joy and repair injured feelings.
Maya Angelou
Courage is the most important of all the virtues, without it, you can practice no other.
Maya Angelou
The area where we are the greatest is the area in which we inspire, encourage and connect with another human being.
Maya Angelou
The Holy Spirit upon my left leads my feet without ceasing into the camp of the righteous and into the tents of the free.
Maya Angelou
I had read a Tale of Two Cities and found it up to my standards as a romantic novel. She opened the first page and I heard poetry for the first time in my life...her voice slid in and curved down trough and over the words. She was nearly singing.
Maya Angelou
I know why the caged bird sings.
Maya Angelou
