Maya Angelou

A great soul serves everyone all the time. A great soul never dies.

When people show you who they are, believe them the first time.

I don't trust people who don't love themselves and tell me 'I love you.'

Without courage you can't practice any other virtue with consistency.

Develop enough courage so that you can stand up for yourself and then stand up for somebody else.

I am capable of what every other human is capable of.

I had given up some youth for knowledge, but my gain was more valuable than the loss.

Growing up, my grandmother did not want worldly music in the house. Then when I went out to California, I started listening to Spanish music, mostly Mexican music. But were I in Egypt, I would listen to the music of the people, or if I was in Italy, I'd listen to Italian music.

Growing up, I decided, a long time ago, I wouldn't accept any manmade differences between human beings, differences made at somebody else's insistence or someone else's whim or convenience.

I'm interested in women's health because I'm a woman. I'd be a darn fool not to be on my own side.

The fact that the adult American Negro female emerges a formidable character is often met with amazement, distaste and even belligerance. It is seldom accepted as an inevitable outcome of the struggle won by survivors, and deserves respect if not enthusiastic acceptance.

We have to confront ourselves. Do we like what we see in the mirror? And, according to our light, according to our understanding, according to our courage, we will have to say yea or nay - and rise!