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I believe what I have to say is important, and I believe the people coming to hear me are important, and so the occasion of itself alone has an importance, which forces me to stare down my nerves.

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
Force
Nerves
Important
Staring
Believe
Occasions
People
Forces
Importance
Coming
Hear
Stare
Alone
Occasion

More quotes by Maya Angelou

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I have respect for the past, but I'm a person of the moment.
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It is this belief in a power larger than myself and other than myself which allows me to venture into the unknown and even the unknowable.
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You may be pretty or plain, heavy or thin, gay or straight, poor or rich. But remember this: In an election, every voice is equally powerful -- don't underestimate your vote. Voting is the great equalizer.
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I'm working at trying to be a Christian, and that's serious business. It's like trying to be a good Jew, a good Muslim, a good Buddhist, a good Shintoist, a good Zoroastrian, a good friend, a good lover, a good mother, a good buddy: it's serious business.
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When I love somebody, I like him to be around I like him to take me out to dinner I like to look at the sunset with him. But if not, I love him and I hope he's looking at the same sun I am. Loving someone liberates the lover as well as the beloved. And that kind of love comes with age. Some of this wisdom came to me after I was 50 or 60.
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We need Joy as we need air. We need Love as we need water. We need each other as we need the earth we share.
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There is a very fine line between loving life and being greedy for it.
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I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
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Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible.
Maya Angelou
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I am a woman phenomenally, phenomenal woman that is your grandmother, that is your mother, that is your sister, that is you and that is me.
Maya Angelou
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Forgive yourself - no one else will.
Maya Angelou
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You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them. Try to be a rainbow in someone else's cloud. Do not complain. Make every effort to change things you do not like. If you cannot make a change, change the way you have been thinking. You might find a new solution.
Maya Angelou
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Always in the black spirituals there's that promise that things are going to be better, by and by.
Maya Angelou
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When I'm writing, I write. And then it's as if the muse is convinced that I'm serious and says, 'Okay. Okay. I'll come.'
Maya Angelou
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You alone are enough. You have nothing to prove to anybody.
Maya Angelou
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There's something which impels us to show our inner souls. The more courageous we are, the more we succeed in explaining what we know.
Maya Angelou
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I don't know how much longer I'll be around. I'll probably be writing when the Lord says, 'Maya, Maya Angelou, it's time.'
Maya Angelou
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We, unaccustomed to courage exiles from delight live coiled in shells of loneliness until love leaves its high holy temple and comes into our sight to liberate us into life.
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My grandmother told me that every good thing I do helps some human being in the world. I believed her 50 years ago and still do.
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Be wary when a naked person offers you his shirt
Maya Angelou