"If I'm the people's poet, then I ought to be in people's hands - and, I hope, in their heart."
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Quote collection
Maya Angelou quotes (page 45 of 51)
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"I am convinced that most people do not grow up ... our real selves, the children inside, are still innocent and shy as magnolias."
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"I've never had a dislike for men. I've been badly treated by some. But I've been loved greatly by some. I married a lot of them."
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"I love wisdom. And you can never be great at anything unless you love it. Not be in love with it, but love the thing, admire the thing. And it seems that if you love the thing, and you don't just want to possess it, it will find you."
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"The public library building, in my view, is just a little lower than the church, the cathedral, the temple, the synagogue and the mosque. Within those walls and along those stacks, I have found security and assurance."
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"[Librarians] study their field with as much determination and as much delight as open-heart surgeons."
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"There is an amazing something in the American psyche which speaks about courage, and it says, 'Yes I can,' ... Yes, we will overcome it all because we have the spirit to do so."
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"I never had that feeling that I had to carry the weight of somebody's ignorance around with me. And that was true for racists who wanted to use the 'n' word when talking about me or about my people, or the stupidity of people who really wanted to belittle other folks because they weren't pretty or they weren't rich or they weren't clever."
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"Sisterhood means if you happen to be in Burma and I happen to be in San Diego and I'm married to someone who is very jealous and you're married to somebody who is very possessive, if you call me in the middle of the night, I have to come."
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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."
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"Raising kids is like nailing Jell-O to a tree."
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"Only equals make friends, every other relationship is contrived and off balance."
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"If you have a song to sing, who are you not to open your mouth and sing to the world?"
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"I would welcome a friendship with Lynne Hinton. I would welcome an invitation to sit down at her table, but mostly I would welcome her next book."
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"I know that I've been guided by God. I am obedient."
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"It's wonderful that whenever Patsy Cline's name is mentioned, people's voices fall and they become right sentimental. And, rightly so."
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"Most people don't grow up. It's too damn difficult. What happens is most people get older."
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"You never get over the fear of writing."
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"I certainly do not adore the writer's discipline. I have lost lovers, endangered friendships, and blundered into eccentricity, impelled by a concentration which usually is to be found only in the minds of people about to be executed in the next half hour."
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"Some of us are timid. We think we have something to lose so we don't try for that next hill."
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