Maya Angelou is one of the United States’ most interesting and important people. Born in 1928, she worked just about every job you could imagine but became best known as a writer. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, plays, films, TV shows and more. She was active during the Civil Rights Movement and remained an activist for racial equality, gender equality, and social justice. Her work has won countless awards, and in 2011, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She passed away in 2014 at age 86, but her words remain. In this article, we’ll explore 15 of her most inspiring quotes found in books and interviews over her lifetime.
#1. “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”
This quote is from one of Maya Angelou’s most important books: I Know Why The Caged Birds Sings. First published in 1969, the autobiography describes Angelou’s life starting from when she was a 3-year-old sent to live with her grandmother to when she became a 16-year-old mother. It’s fitting this quote comes from the first of Angelou’s autobiographies, which share the story of a life well-lived.
#2. “We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.”
Letter to My Daughter, Maya Angelou’s third book of essays, was released in 2009. While Angelou has no daughters of her own, she wrote this book in honor of the many women who saw her as a mother figure. Quotes like this emphasize the importance of resilience and hope. As Angelou knows from personal experience, life is full of defeats, but they should not define our entire lives and prevent us from continuing on.
#3. “Nothing will work unless you do.”
This quote is from Wouldn’t Take Nothing For My Journey Now, Angelou’s first book of essays published in 1993. It takes its title from the African-American spiritual “On My Journey Now.” In the book, Angelou shares insights into topics such as faith, grieving, racism and self-care. It’s considered one of Angelou’s “wisdom books.” In just a few words, the quote above encapsulates how everyone must take action if they want anything to happen in their lives.
#4. “I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.”
Another quote from Letter to My Daughter, these words are especially moving considering Maya Angelou’s life. At age 8, she was abused by her mother’s boyfriend, and after he was killed, Angelou went mute for almost five years. She faced many other difficulties in her life, but as her quote says, she was not reduced by any of them.
#5. “Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can’t practice any other virtue consistently.”
The Heart of a Woman was Maya Angelou’s fourth autobiography. It covers her life from 1957-1962 when she traveled extensively through California, New York, Egypt, and Ghana, all while raising her teenage son, becoming a published author, and working in the Civil Rights Movement. Her life during this time sang with courage, and as this quote emphasizes, courage is the foundation of every other virtue.
#6. “Also, I encourage courtesy. To accept nothing less than courtesy, and to give nothing less than courtesy. If we accept being talked to any kind of a way, then we are telling ourselves we are not quite worth the best. And if we have the effrontery to talk to anybody with less than courtesy, we tell ourselves and the world we are not very intelligent.”
Maya Angelou wrote and spoke often about identity and self-empowerment. In this quote, which is pulled from Psychology Today’s 2009 interview with the author, Marianne Schnall has just asked Angelou what she wished she knew as a child. Angelou first says, “courage,” but then continues with why courtesy matters, too. Accepting anything less than courtesy harms a person’s self-esteem while treating others without courtesy affects both our view of ourselves and how others see us.
#7. “I wish that we could look into each other’s faces, in each other’s eyes, and see our own selves. I hope that the children have not been so scarred by their upbringing that they only think fear when they see someone else who looks separate from them.”
In the Psychology Today interview, Marianne Schnall asks Angelou, “What is your wish for children of the future?” Angelou’s answer, quoted above, represents one of the author’s most enduring sentiments. She always encouraged people to focus on the similarities we share and embrace our identity as humans.
Check out our article on the top 12 quotes about advocacy.
#8. “I know that one of the great arts that the writer develops is the art of saying, “No. No, I’m finished. Bye.” And leaving it alone. I will not write it into the ground. I will not write the life out of it.”
In 1990, Maya Angelou was interviewed on stage at the YMHA in Manhattan, New York, in front of an audience of mostly women. The interviewer, George Plimpton, asked Angelou how she began her work day. While writing, she describes trying to pull the language into shape, into sharpness, and taking a few weeks to describe what she’s seeing. Plimpton then asks how Angelou knows when the work is done, to which she says it’s done when it’s the best she can do. It may not be “the best,” but as Angelou’s quote above says, knowing when to let a piece of writing go is one of a writer’s best tools. This interview appeared in Issue 116 of The Paris Review.
#9. “So I decided to try everything, to keep myself wide open to human beings, all human beings — seeing them as I understand them to be, not as they wish they were, but as I understand them to be.”
The quote above comes from Bill Moyer’s first interview with Maya Angelou in 1973. It’s a response to Moyer’s question about how Angelou stays open to the world and to hope, even when the world was so closed to Black women. She describes coming to a place where she realized she had nothing to lose, so closing herself up was foolish. Instead, she resolved to try everything and stay wide open, while recognizing the reality of what people can be.
#10. “Take as much time as you need to make up your mind, but once it is made up, step out on your decision like it’s something you want.”
Maya Angelou always encouraged people to take action when they could. That doesn’t mean she advocated for quick decisions. Rather, she said people should take as much time as they need, but once a decision is made, it’s time to act. The quote above comes from A Song Flung Up To Heaven, the sixth of Angelou’s autobiographies. It takes place between 1965 and 1968. During these years, Angelou faces the assassinations of both Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr while adjusting to her return to the US after living in Ghana.
#11. “Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for all women.”
Much of Maya Angelou’s writings focus on womanhood, motherhood, and other aspects of being a woman in this world. According to the New York Times, this quote first appeared in a video endorsement for Hillary Clinton’s campaign for president in 2007.
#12. “You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.”
This is an excerpt from “Still I Rise,” one of Maya Angelou’s most famous poems. It appears in the book And Still I Rise, which is the writer’s third poetry collection from 1978. It acknowledges hatred, racism, and violence, but triumphantly declares “I’ll rise.” The rest of the poem follows a similar structure that recognizes the injustices against Black people but always ends with a deeply hopeful, determined message.
Poetry often centers on deep themes. Here’s our article listing 10 poems about equality.
#13. “History, despite its wrenching pain / Cannot be unlived, but if faced / With courage, need not be lived again.”
In 1993, Maya Angelou read the poem “On the Pulse of Morning” for Bill Clinton’s first inauguration. Her performance became famous. The excerpt above represents Angelou’s deeply held beliefs about facing history and its injustices, but not letting it reduce or defeat us. Courage, which Angelou believes is the most important virtue, is what helps us never repeat the pain of the past.
#14. “One must nurture the joy in one’s life so that it reaches full bloom.”
This quote comes from Rainbow in the Cloud: The Wisdom and Spirit of Maya Angelou. The book collects excerpts from Angelou’s many works on topics like family, community, equality, spirituality, parenting and more. Guy Johnson, Angelou’s son, also contributed with some words his mother would share with him and their family.
#15. What I really want to do is be a representative of my race, of the human race. I have a chance to show how kind we can be, how intelligent and generous we can be. I have a chance to teach and to love and to laugh. I know that when I finish doing what I’m sent here to do, I will be called home. And I will go home without any fear, trepidations, wondering what’s gonna happen.”
This quote appeared in the trailer of Beyonce’s Netflix film Homecoming, which explores the artist’s preparation for her iconic 2018 Coachella performance. According to Oprah Daily, the quote comes from Maya Angelou’s interview with George Stroumboulopoulos in 2014. It was one of her last sit-down interviews.
