Top 500 Maya Angelou Quotes (2025 Update)
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251. “You may be pretty or plain, heavy or thin, gay or straight, poor or rich. But remember this: In an election, every voice is equally powerful – don’t underestimate your vote. Voting is the great equalizer.”

— Maya Angelou

252. “Life loves the liver of it. You must live and life will be good to you.”

— Maya Angelou

253. “As long as you’re breathing, it’s never too late to do some good.”

— Maya Angelou

254. “Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.”

— Maya Angelou

255. “I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself.”

— Maya Angelou

256. “We all have that possibility, that potential and that promise of seeing beyond the seeming.”

— Maya Angelou

257. “There is no place where God is not.”

— Maya Angelou

258. “In order to win, we pay with energy and effort and discipline. If we lose, we pay in disappointment, discontent, and lack of fulfillment.”

— Maya Angelou

259. “All God’s children need traveling shoes.”

— Maya Angelou

260. “I will write on the pages of history what I want them to say. I will be myself. I will speak my own name.”

— Maya Angelou

261. “We must create a climate where people agree that human beings are more alike than unalike. The only way to do that is through education.”

— Maya Angelou

262. “Every day I awaken I am grateful. My intent is to be totally present in that day. And laugh as much as possible.”

— Maya Angelou

263. “I’m grateful for being here, for being able to think, for being able to see, for being able to taste, for appreciating love – for knowing that it exists in a world so rife with vulgarity, with brutality and violence, and yet love exists. I’m grateful to know that it exists.”

— Maya Angelou

264. “Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told: ‘I’m with you kid. Let’s go.’”

— Maya Angelou

265. “The woman who survives intact and happy must be at once tender and tough.”

— Maya Angelou

266. “If you’re for the right thing, you do it without thinking.”

— Maya Angelou

267. “Faith is the evidence of the unseen.”

— Maya Angelou

268. “Life loves the liver of it.”

— Maya Angelou

269. “Spirit is an invisible force made visible in all life.”

— Maya Angelou

270. “If I’m here, I’ll be trying to be a better human being, a better writer, a better friend and a better beloved.”

— Maya Angelou

271. “The most important thing is to DARE.”

— Maya Angelou

272. “If I have a monument in this world, it is my son.”

— Maya Angelou

273. “Be certain that you do not die without having done something wonderful for humanity.”

— Maya Angelou

274. “Intelligence always had a pornographic influence on me.”

— Maya Angelou

275. “And I not only have the right to stand up for myself, but I have the responsibility. I can’t ask somebody else to stand up for me if I won’t stand up for myself. And once you stand up for yourself, you’d be surprised that people say, “Can I be of help?””

— Maya Angelou

276. “Eating is so intimate. It’s very sensual. When you invite someone to sit at your table and you want to cook for them, you’re inviting a person into your life.”

— Maya Angelou

277. “I’ve learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you’ll miss them when they’re gone from your life.”

— Maya Angelou

278. “I think I know that I deserve better. And so I try for better. I’m never so put off that I would ever walk out of a place not having tried the best I could.”

— Maya Angelou

279. “Dare to let your dreams reach beyond you.”

— Maya Angelou

280. “Laugh and dare to try to love somebody, starting with yourself. You must love yourself first, of course, and you must protect yourself so that nobody overrides you, overrules you, or steps on you. Just say, ‘Just a minute. I’m worth everything, dear.’”

— Maya Angelou

281. “Whether you are happy or whether you are sad, it is wise to remember you are really in process.”

— Maya Angelou

282. “It may in fact be utterly impossible to be successful without helping others to become successful.”

— Maya Angelou

283. “You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, the encountering may be the very experience which creates the vitality and the power to endure.”

— Maya Angelou

284. “Look what you’ve already come through! Don’t deny it. Say I’m stronger than I thought I was.”

— Maya Angelou

285. “I don’t trust any revolution where love is not allowed.”

— Maya Angelou

286. “It’s true. I can do anything and do it well because God loves me. It still humbles me.”

— Maya Angelou

287. “Poetry gave me back my voice.”

— Maya Angelou

288. “You can only become great at something you are willing to sacrifice for.”

— Maya Angelou

289. “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.”

— Maya Angelou

290. “I want all my senses engaged. Let me absorb the world’s variety and uniqueness.”

— Maya Angelou

291. “You can never be great at anything unless you love it.”

— Maya Angelou

292. “Since time is the one immaterial object which we cannot influence neither speed up nor slow down add to nor diminish it is an imponderably valuable gift.”

— Maya Angelou

293. “I think the more we know the better we are. I mean not just facts. The more we know about each other, the closer we are to learn something about our selves.”

— Maya Angelou

294. “Each of us has that right, that possibility, to invent ourselves daily. If a person does not invent herself, she will be invented. So, to be bodacious enough to invent ourselves is wise.”

— Maya Angelou

295. “The truth is very important. No matter how negative it is, it is imperative that you learn the truth, not necessarily the facts. I mean, that, that can come, but facts can stand in front of the truth and almost obscure the truth. It is imperative that students learn the truth of our history.”

— Maya Angelou

296. “My life has been one great big joke, A dance that’s walked, A song that’s spoke, I laugh so hard I almost choke, When I think about myself.”

— Maya Angelou

297. “It is only out of ignorance that people are cruel, because they really don’t think it will come back.”

— Maya Angelou

298. “Every person needs to take one day away. A day in which one consciously separates the past from the future.”

— Maya Angelou

299. “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?”

— Maya Angelou

300. “Don’t get older just to get wiser. If you get older, you will be wiser, I believe that – if you dare. But get older because it’s fun!”

— Maya Angelou