Quote

Being free is being able to accept people for what they are, and not try to understand all they are or be what they are.

Maya Angelou

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Accept
Accepting
Free
Understand
Able
Trying

More quotes by Maya Angelou

Image
One of the wonderful things about Oprah: She teaches you to keep on stepping.
Maya Angelou
Image
Does my sexiness upset you? Does it come as a surprise That I dance like I've got diamonds At the meeting of my thighs?
Maya Angelou
Image
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
Image
Without courage we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency.
Maya Angelou
Image
I agreed a long time ago, I would not live at any cost. If I am moved or forced away from what I think is the right thing, I will not do it.
Maya Angelou
Image
I am capable of what every other human is capable of. This is one of the great lessons of war and life.
Maya Angelou
Image
I know some people might think it odd - unworthy even - for me to have written a cookbook, but I make no apologies. The U.S. poet laureate Billy Collins thought I had demeaned myself by writing poetry for Hallmark Cards, but I am the people's poet so I write for the people.
Maya Angelou
Image
You don't want modesty, you want humility. Humility comes from inside out. It says someone was here before me and I'm here because I've been paid for. I have something to do and I will do that because I'm paying for someone else who has yet to come.
Maya Angelou
Image
I think music is one of the hero/sheroes of the African-American existence.
Maya Angelou
Image
Everybody born comes from the Creator trailing wisps of glory. We come from the Creator with creativity. I think that each one of us is born with creativity.
Maya Angelou
Image
Effective action is always unjust.
Maya Angelou
Image
What I think it really means is: I'm a teacher. I am a teacher. I teach all the time, as you do and as all of you do-whether we know it or not, whether we take responsibility for it or not. I hold nothing back because I want to see that light go off. I like to see the children say, 'I never thought of that before.' And I think, 'I've got them!'
Maya Angelou
Image
I am convinced that words are things, and we simply don't have the machinery to measure what they are. I believe that words are tangible things.
Maya Angelou
Image
Try to live your life in a way that you will not regret years of useless virtue and inertia and timidity.
Maya Angelou
Image
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
Image
Always in the black spirituals there's that promise that things are going to be better, by and by.
Maya Angelou
Image
My mother raised me, and then freed me.
Maya Angelou
Image
There is an intimate laughter to be found only among friends
Maya Angelou
Image
We are missing Michael. But we do know we had him, and we are the world.
Maya Angelou
Image
What you're supposed to do when you don't like a thing is change it. If you can't change it, change the way you think about it. Don't complain.
Maya Angelou