Remember Maya Angelou By Reading 75 of Her Most Inspiring Quotes

Born on April 4, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri, Maya Angelou's historic career spanned six decades, from her first days as a theater dancer, writer, and actress in the 1950s to her 2013 book, Mom & Me & Mom. The celebrated poet, novelist, and activist Maya Angelou died after being hospitalized for an "unexpected ailment" in 2014. She was 86.

Angelou's work has earned her more than 30 honorary degrees, a Presidential Medal of Arts, a Lincoln Medal, three Grammys, and the honor of reading her poetry at President Clinton's 1993 inauguration. She was a rich source of wisdom and inspiring perspective—snippets of which we've collected here.

To honor her, we rounded up the best Maya Angelou quotes.

75 Maya Angelou Quotes

1. "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." —Undated

2. "The needs of a society determine its ethics." —1969

3. "Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it." —Undated

4. "You don't have to think about doing the right thing. If you're for the right thing, then you do it without thinking." —1969

5. "The first time someone shows you who they are, believe them." —Undated

6. "You can never be great at anything unless you love it." —2000

7. "You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them." —2009

8. "Never whine. Whining lets a brute know that a victim is in the neighborhood." —2009

9. "Be certain that you do not die without having done something wonderful for humanity." —2009

10. "The first thing I do in the morning when I awaken is say, ‘Thank you, Lord!’ I’m grateful to be alive, and I'm going to try to tell the truth as well as I know and tell it as eloquently as I can so that people can hear it.” —2012

11. "I thank God that I’ve lived long enough to see what I have seen, and I pray that people will continue to do better. We are doing better, it may not seem so, but there was a time when people were lynched in the middle of the street and it was not against the law. We are doing better, but we have so much more to do." —2012

12. "I’m grateful to be of use. I will not be misused or abused, but I will be of use to anybody.” —2012

13. "I have a certain way of being in this world, and I shall not, I shall not be moved." —2014

14. "When we decide to be happy we accept the responsibility to bring happiness to someone else." —2014

15. "Let the brain go to work, let it meet the heart and you will be able to forgive." —2014

16. "The caged bird sings with a fearful trill of things unknown but longed for still and his tune is heard on the distant hill for the caged bird sings of freedom."

17. “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.”

18. "Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest."

19. “Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future, and renders the present inaccessible.”

20. "This is a beautiful day, I've never seen this one before."

21. "There is a spirit in all music, the spirit has the ability to conjure up thoughts even pictures of something that happened or you wished would happen or you anticipate happening. Music has the ability to create ideas in you and me."

20. "Peace my brother, peace my sister, peace my soul."

21. “Some people cannot see a good thing when it is right here, right now. Others can sense a good thing coming when it is days, months, or miles away.”

22. "I am a Woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal Woman, that’s me.”

23. “Love life. Engage in it. Give it all you've got. Love it with a passion because life truly does give back, many times over, what you put into it.”

24. "Try to live your life in a way that you will not regret years of useless virtue and inertia and timidity. Take up the battle, take it up! It's yours, this is your life, this is your world."

25. "Listen to yourself and in that quietude you might hear the voice of God."

26. "We are not our brother’s keeper; we are our brother and we are our sister. We must look past complexion and see community.

27. “The honorary duty of a human being is to love.”

28. "The greatest gift we give to each other is the telling of the truth."

29. “If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded."

30. "You should be angry. You must not be bitter. Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. It doesn’t do anything to the object of its displeasure. So use that anger. You write it. You paint it. You dance it. You march it. You vote it..."

31. "Dear Creator, You, the borderless
sea of substance, we ask you to give to all the
world that which we need most—Peace."

32. "I had to trust life, since I was young enough to believe that life loved the person who dared to live it."

33. "The idea of overcoming is always fascinating to me. It's fascinating because few of us realize how much energy we have expended just to be here today. I don't think we give ourselves enough credit for the overcoming."

34. "Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise."

35. “My wish for you is that you continue. Continue to be who and how you are, to astonish a mean world with your acts of kindness."

36. “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.”

37. "We all should know that diversity makes for a rich tapestry, and we must understand that all the threads of the tapestry are equal in value no matter their color; equal in importance no matter their texture."

38. “Let gratitude be the pillow upon which you kneel to say your nightly prayer. And let faith be the bridge you build to overcome evil and welcome good.”