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" During bad circumstances, which is the human inheritance, you must decide not to be reduced. You have your humanity, and you must not allow anything to reduce that. We are obliged to know we are global citizens. Disasters remind us we are world citizens, whether we like it or not. "

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" A black person grows up in this country - and in many places - knowing that racism will be as familiar as salt to the tongue. Also, it can be as dangerous as too much salt. I think that you must struggle for betterment for yourself and for everyone. "

Maya Angelou

Black

Racism

Struggle

" One of the wonderful things about Oprah: She teaches you to keep on stepping. "

" At one time, you could sit on the Rue de la Paix in Paris or at the Habima Theater in Tel Aviv or in Medina and you could see a person come in, black, white, it didn't matter. You said, 'That's an American' because there's a readiness to smile and to talk to people. "

" I created myself. I have taught myself so much. "

" Shakespeare - I was very influenced - still am - by Shakespeare. I couldn't believe that a white man in the 16th century could so know my heart. "

" All of us knows, not what is expedient, not what is going to make us popular, not what the policy is, or the company policy - but in truth each of us knows what is the right thing to do. And that's how I am guided. "

" We can learn to see each other and see ourselves in each other and recognize that human beings are more alike than we are unalike. "

" And if a person is religious, I think it's good, it helps you a bit. But if you're not, at least you can have the sense that there is a condition inside you which looks at the stars with amazement and awe. "

" All great achievements require time. "

" Of course, there are those critics - New York critics as a rule - who say, 'Well, Maya Angelou has a new book out and of course it's good but then she's a natural writer.' Those are the ones I want to grab by the throat and wrestle to the floor because it takes me forever to get it to sing. I work at the language. "

Maya Angelou

Work

Book

" One of my lungs is half gone, and the other half, because I smoked for years, has a lesion. So I can't swim anymore and had the swimming pool covered over. Now it's what I call the dance pavilion, and so I and my friends sit out and put music on and watch people dance. "

" Whenever I'm around some who is modest, I think, 'Run like hell and all of fire.' You don't want modesty, you want humility. "

" Bitterness is cancer - it eats upon the host. It doesn't do anything to the object of its displeasure. "

" I have a son, who is my heart. A wonderful young man, daring and loving and strong and kind. "

" I've still not written as well as I want to. I want to write so that the reader in Des Moines, Iowa, in Kowloon, China, in Cape Town, South Africa, can say, 'You know, that's the truth. I wasn't there, and I wasn't a six-foot black girl, but that's the truth.' "

" When I was 8 years old I became a mute and was a mute until I was 13, and I thought of my whole body as an ear, so I can go into a crowd and sit still and absorb all sound. That talent or ability has lasted and served me until today. "

" There's something which impels us to show our inner souls. The more courageous we are, the more we succeed in explaining what we know. "

Maya Angelou

Know

Show

" The loss of young first love is so painful that it borders on the ludicrous. "

" It's one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself, to forgive. Forgive everybody. "

" In a magazine, one can get - from cover to cover - 15 to 20 different ideas about life and how to live it. "

" 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 need for change bulldozed a road down the center of my mind. "

" I think music is one of the hero/sheroes of the African-American existence. "

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

Maya Angelou

Knowledge

Loss

" If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. "

Maya Angelou

Your

You

" I've never had a dislike for men. I've been badly treated by some. But I've been loved greatly by some. I married a lot of them. "

" The best comfort food will always be greens, cornbread, and fried chicken. "

" In a long meter hymn, a singer - they call it 'lays out a line.' And then the whole church joins in in repeating that line. And they form a wall of harmony so tight, you can't wedge a pin between it. "

" On Saturday afternoons when all the things are done in the house and there's no real work to be done, I play Bach and Chopin and turn it up real loudly and get a good bottle of chardonnay and sit out on my deck and look out at the garden. "

" It's very important to know the neighbor next door and the people down the street and the people in another race. "