Quote

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.

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
Work
Tried
Belongs
Pieces
Concentration
Present
Belong
Working
Total
Doesn
Totally
Doe
Finished
Need
Anymore
Needs
Piece
Completed

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Creativity or talent, like electricity, is something I don't understand but something I'm able to harness and use.
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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.
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Faith is the evidence of the unseen.
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I wasn't a pretty girl. I was six feet tall at 15, you know.
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In a long meter hymn, a singer - they call it 'lays out a line.' And then the whole church joins in in repeating that line. And they form a wall of harmony so tight, you can't wedge a pin between it.
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You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.
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You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. Please remember that your difficulties do not define you. They simply strengthen your ability to overcome.
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On this platform of peace, we can create a language to translate ourselves to ourselves and to each other.
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Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with deeper meaning.
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You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.
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It is impossible to struggle for civil rights, equal rights for blacks, without including whites. Because equal rights, fair play, justice, are all like the air: we all have it, or none of us has it. That is the truth of it.
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Sometimes guns really matter. Protecting those who need protection - children, women, minorities in rough parts of town, old folks living in places where cops aren't nearby. Guns are true empowerment for the powerless.
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Be courageous, but not foolhardy. Walk proud as you are.
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I think we ought to give ourselves more time. We should be more patient with ourselves and with each other.
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Leaving behind nights of terror and fear, I rise. Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear, I rise.
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Hope and fear cannot occupy the same space. Invite one to stay.
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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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I did get knocked down flat in front of the whole world, and I rose. I didn't run away - I rose right where I'd been knocked down. And then that's how you get to know yourself. You say, hmm, I can get up!
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If we are bold, love strikes away the chains of fear from our souls.
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Love is that condition in the human spirit so profound that it allows me to survive, and better than that, to thrive with passion, compassion, and style.
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