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I've had people explain to me what one of my poems meant, and I've been surprised that it means that to them. If a person can use a poem of mine to interpret her life or his life, good. I can't control that. Nor would I want to.

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
People
Use
Surprised
Means
Poem
Persons
Explain
Person
Meant
Mean
Mines
Good
Mine
Interpreting
Would
Poetry
Interpret
Life
Control
Poems

More quotes by Maya Angelou

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I want all my senses engaged. Let me absorb the world's variety and uniqueness.
Maya Angelou
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Would you deny your son or your daughter the ecstasy of finding someone to love?
Maya Angelou
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My hope is that we develop enough courage to develop courage. To try to have, try to learn to treat each other fairly, with generosity and kindness.
Maya Angelou
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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
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You alone are enough. You have nothing to prove to anybody.
Maya Angelou
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You will face many defeats in your life, but never let yourself be defeated.
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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We can be better, we can be wiser, we can be more kind. Yes we have to change. We have to grow up and stop acting like 10 years old. Yes there is much to do, much to see, much to go into.
Maya Angelou
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One of the wonderful things about Oprah: She teaches you to keep on stepping.
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
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It's very hard for adults to maintain respect and romance so that a love affair can be sustained over years.
Maya Angelou
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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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Therefore we pledge to bind ourselves to one another, to embrace our lowliest, to keep company with our loneliest, to educate our illiterate, to feed our starving, to clothe our ragged, to do all good things, knowing that we are more than keepers of our brothers and sisters. We are our brothers and sisters
Maya Angelou
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You may write me down in history With your bitter, twisted lies. You may trod me in the very dirt, but still like dust, I'll rise.
Maya Angelou
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In order to be a mentor, and an effective one, one must care. You must care. You don't have to know how many square miles are in Idaho, you don't need to know what is the chemical makeup of chemistry, or of blood or water. Know what you know and care about the person, care about what you know and care about the person you're sharing with.
Maya Angelou
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Those who have something to say accept the fact that that's lonely. One already knows that there will be adversaries.
Maya Angelou
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The future is plump with promise.
Maya Angelou
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Open your eyes to the beauty around you, open your mind to the wonders of life, open your heart to those who love you, and always be true to yourself.
Maya Angelou
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I am grateful to be a woman. I must have done something great in another life.
Maya Angelou
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The idea of overcoming is always fascinating to me. It's fascinating because few of us realize how much energy we have expended just to be here today. I don't think we give ourselves enough credit for the overcoming.
Maya Angelou