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The first thing I do in the morning when I awaken is say, 'Thank you, Lord!' I'm grateful to be alive, and I'm going to try to tell the truth as well as I know and tell it as eloquently as I can so that people can hear it.

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
Going
Tell
Awaken
People
Truth
Thank
Wells
Inspiring
Firsts
Grateful
Well
Hear
First
Alive
Thing
Morning
Trying
Lord
Eloquently

More quotes by Maya Angelou

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I encourage courtesy. To accept nothing less than courtesy, and to give nothing less than courtesy. If we accept being talked to any kind of a way, then we are telling ourselves we are not quite worth the best. And if we have the effrontery to talk to anybody with less than courtesy, we tell ourselves and the world we are not very intelligent.
Maya Angelou
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People will never forget how you made them feel.
Maya Angelou
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Look what you've already come through! Don't deny it. Say I'm stronger than I thought I was
Maya Angelou
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I think the more we know the better we are. I mean not just facts. The more we know about each other, the closer we are to learn something about our selves.
Maya Angelou
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We can only know where we're going if we know where we've been.
Maya Angelou
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All riddles are blues, / And all blues are sad, / And I'm only mentioning / Some blues I've had.
Maya Angelou
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Develop enough courage so that you can stand up for yourself and then stand up for somebody else.
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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Live life as if it were created just for you.
Maya Angelou
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Love builds up the broken wall and straightens the crooked path. Love keeps the stars in the firmament and imposes rhythm on the ocean tides. Each of us is created of it and I suspect each of us was created for it.
Maya Angelou
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There are those who say that poets should use her and his art to change the world. I'd agree with that, but I think everybody should do that. I think the chef and the baker and the candlestick maker - I think everybody should be hoping to make it a better world.
Maya Angelou
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No matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow.
Maya Angelou
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I write because I am a Black woman, listening attentively to her people.
Maya Angelou
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I find in my poetry and prose the rhythms and imagery of the best - I mean, when I'm at my best - of the good Southern black preachers. The lyricism of the spirituals and the directness of gospel songs and the mystery of blues are in my music or in my poetry and prose, or I missed everything.
Maya Angelou
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The needs of a society determine its ethics.
Maya Angelou
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Strong women- precious jewels all- their humanness is evident in their accessibility. We are able to enter into the spirit of these women and rejoice in their warmth and courage.
Maya Angelou
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When you do nothing you feel overwhelmed and powerless. But when you get involved you feel the sense of hope and accomplishment that comes from knowing you are working to make things better.
Maya Angelou
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I will write on the pages of history what I want them to say. I will be myself. I will speak my own name.
Maya Angelou
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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.
Maya Angelou
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It is sad but true that sometimes we need the tragedy to help us to see how human we are and how we are more alike than we are different.
Maya Angelou