Maya Angelou (icon (born Marguerite Ann Johnson on April 4, 1928) is an American author
and poet who has been called "America's most visible black female autobiographer" by scholar Joanne M. Braxton. She is best known for her series of six autobiographical volumes, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first and most highly acclaimed, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
(1969), tells of her first seventeen years.
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.
Without courage we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.
Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.
People will forget what you said People will forget what you did But people will never forget how you made them feel.
There is nothing so pitiful as a young cynic because he has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing.
I am capable of what every other human is capable of. This is one of the great lessons of war and life.
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.
If we are bold, love strikes away the chains of fear from our souls.
Love costs all we are and will ever be. Yet it is only love which sets us free. A Brave and Startling Truth.
It is possible and imperative that we discover A brave and startling truth.