About Maya Angelou

American poet and memoirist, author of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. (1928-2014)

See all 13 Maya Angelou quotes

More from Maya Angelou

• My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.Facebook post (July 4, 2011)
• You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.Letter to My Daughter (2009)
• Without courage we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.Interview in USA Today (March 5, 1988)
• You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.1982 interview, in Conversations with Maya Angelou (1989)
• If we are bold, love strikes away the chains of fear from our souls.A Brave and Startling Truth (1995)
• Life is going to give you just what you put in it. Put your whole heart in everything you do, and pray, then you can wait.I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969)

More quotes on courage

• We are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it.Thomas Jefferson
• There is not a truth existing which I fear or would wish unknown to the whole world.Thomas Jefferson
• It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena.Theodore Roosevelt
• Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much.Theodore Roosevelt
• We cannot avoid meeting great issues. All that we can determine for ourselves is whether we shall meet them well or ill.Theodore Roosevelt
• We shall make mistakes; and if we let these mistakes frighten us from our work we shall show ourselves weaklings.Theodore Roosevelt

All courage quotes