60 Quotes by Maya Angelou About Life and Love That Will Inspire You

1. "Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope."

2. "I don't trust people who don't love themselves and tell me, 'I love you.'... There is an African saying which is: Be careful when a naked person offers you a shirt."

3. "First best is falling in love. Second best is being in love. Least best is falling out of love. But any of it is better than never having been in love."

4. "The honorary duty of a human being is to love."

5. "Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time."

6. "Never make someone a priority when all you are to them is an option."

7. "In all the world, there is no heart for me like yours. In all the world, there is no love for you like mine."

8. "Love is like a virus. It can happen to anybody at any time."

9. "I am grateful to have been loved and to be loved now and to be able to love, because that liberates. Love liberates. It doesn't just hold — that's ego. Love liberates. It doesn't bind. Love says, 'I love you. I love you if you're in China. I love you if you're across town. I love you if you're in Harlem. I love you. I would like to be near you. I'd like to have your arms around me. I'd like to hear your voice in my ear. But that's not possible now, so I love you. Go.'"

10. "When we find someone who is brave, fun, intelligent, and loving, we have to thank the universe."

1. "Life is pure adventure, and the sooner we realize that, the quicker we will be able to treat life as art."

2. "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."

3. "I've learned that making a 'living' is not the same thing as 'making a life'."

4. "I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back."

5. "You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them."

6. "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."

7. "There's a world of difference between truth and facts. Facts can obscure truth."

8. "No matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow."

9. "Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible."

10. "What is a fear of living? It's being preeminently afraid of dying. It is not doing what you came here to do, out of timidity and spinelessness. The antidote is to take full responsibility for yourself - for the time you take up and the space you occupy. If you don't know what you're here to do, then just do some good."

1. "Whatever you want to do, if you want to be great at it, you have to love it and be able to make sacrifices for it."

2. "All great achievements require time."

3. "Nothing will work unless you do."

4. "Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can't practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage."

5. "We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated."

6. "Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud."

7. "If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude."

8. "I believe that every person is born with talent."

9. "Life offers us tickets to places which we have not knowingly asked for."

10. "A person is the product of their dreams. So make sure to dream great dreams. And then try to live your dream."

11. "One isn't necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest."

12. "The desire to reach the stars is ambitious. The desire to reach hearts is wise and most possible."

13. "You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have."

14. "If you are always trying to be normal you will never know how amazing you can be."

15. "I've learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision."

16. "Anything that works against you can also work for you once you understand the Principle of Reverse."

17. "Instead, pursue the things you love doing, and then do them so well that people can't take their eyes off you."

18. "We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty."

19. "Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it."

20. "You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don't make money your goal. Instead pursue the things you love doing and then do them so well that people can't take their eyes off of you."

1. "There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you."

2. "When someone shows you who they are believe them the first time."

3. "I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better."

4. "You alone are enough. You have nothing to prove to anybody."

5. "Ask for what you want and be prepared to get it!"

6. "Nothing can dim the light which shines from within."

7. "If I am not good to myself, how can I expect anyone else to be good to me?"

8. "Everything in the universe has a rhythm, everything dances."

9. "Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean."

10. "Hoping for the best, prepared for the worst, and unsurprised by anything in between."

11. "I don't trust anyone who doesn't laugh."

12. "When you learn, teach, when you get, give."

13. "I've learned that even when I have pains, I don't have to be one."

14. "A friend may be waiting behind a stranger's face."

15. "When we give cheerfully and accept gratefully, everyone is blessed."

16. "Be present in all things and thankful for all things."

17. "We need much less than we think we need."

18. "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."

19. "Hope and fear cannot occupy the same space. Invite one to stay."

20. "In diversity there is beauty and there is strength."