You can't forgive without loving. And I don't mean sentimentality. I don't mean mush. I mean having enough courage to stand up and say, 'I forgive. Furthermore, I'm finished with it.'

— Maya Angelou

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

— Maya Angelou

You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.

— Maya Angelou

You don’t want modesty, you want humility. Humility comes from inside out. It says someone was here before me, and I’m here because I’ve been paid for. I have something to do, and I will do that because I’m paying for someone else who has yet to come.

— Maya Angelou

You have to develop ways so that you can take up for yourself, and then you take up for someone else. And so sooner or later, you have enough courage to really stand up for the human race and say, 'I'm a representative.'

— Maya Angelou

You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.

— Maya Angelou

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

— Maya Angelou

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.

— Maya Angelou

You may write me down in history With your bitter, twisted lies, You may tread me in the very dirt But still, like dust, I'll rise. Does my nastiness upset you? Why are you beset with gloom? 'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells Pumping in my living room. Just like moons and like suns, With the certainty of tides, Just like hopes springing high, Still I'll rise. Did you want to see me broken? Bowed head and lowered eyes? Shoulders falling down like teardrops. Weakened by my soulful cries. Does my haughtiness offend you? Don't you take it awful hard'Cause I laugh like I've got gold minesDiggin' in my own backyard? 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. Does my sexiness upset you? Does it come as a surprise That I dance like I've got diamonds At the meeting of my thighs? Out of the huts of history's shame rise Up from a past that's rooted in pain rise'm a black ocean, leaping and wide, Welling and swelling I bear in the tide. Leaving behind nights of terror and fear rise Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear rise Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I riseI rise.

— Maya Angelou

You may write me down in history with your bitter, twisted lines. You may tread me in the very dirt, but still, like dust, I'll rise.

— Maya Angelou