Maya Angelou

Loving someone liberates the lover as well as the beloved. And that kind of love comes with age.

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

I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver.

If you have only one smile in you give it to the people you love.

If we lose love and self respect for each other, this is how we finally die.

I know for sure that loves saves me and that it is here to save us all.

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.

The most important thing I can tell you about aging is this: If you really feel that you want to have an off-the-shoulder blouse and some big beads and thong sandals and a dirndl skirt and a magnolia in your hair, do it. Even if you're wrinkled.

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.

There is a very fine line between loving life and being greedy for it.

At fifteen life had taught me undeniably that surrender, in its place, was as honorable as resistance, especially if one had no choice.

I know that one of the great arts that the writer develops is the art of saying, 'No. No, I'm finished. Bye.' And leaving it alone. I will not write it into the ground. I will not write the life out of it. I won't do that.