Maya Angelou Positive Quotations

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.

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

I believe we are still so innocent. The species are still so innocent that a person who is apt to be murdered believes that the murderer, just before he puts the final wrench on his throat, will have enough compassion to give him one sweet cup of water.

You are the sum total of everything you've ever seen, heard, eaten, smelled, been told, forgot - it's all there. Everything influences each of us, and because of that I try to make sure that my experiences are positive.

Self-pity in its early stage is as snug as a feather mattress. Only when it hardens does it become uncomfortable.

I'm convinced of this: Good done anywhere is good done everywhere. For a change, start by speaking to people rather than walking by them like they're stones that don't matter. As long as you're breathing, it's never too late to do some good.

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.

She's my sister friend and I pray for her and her children. Everybody, please give a good thought, a positive thought for Coretta.

I thought if war did not include killing, I'd like to see one every year.

What you're supposed to do when you don't like a thing is change it. If you can't change it, change the way you think about it. Don't complain.

The needs of a society determine its ethics.

People will never forget how you made them feel.

Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with deeper meaning.

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

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

Something made greater by ourselves and in turn that makes us greater.

Hate, it has caused a lot of problems in the world, but has not solved one yet.

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

Talent is like electricity. We don't understand electricity. We use it.

It is this belief in a power larger than myself and other than myself which allows me to venture into the unknown and even the unknowable.

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. I'm finished with it.'

Don't bring negative to my door.

I encourage courtesy. To accept nothing less than courtesy, and to give nothing less than courtesy. If we accept being talked to any kind of a way, then we are telling ourselves we are not quite worth the best. And if we have the effrontery to talk to anybody with less than courtesy, we tell ourselves and the world we are not very intelligent.