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" I was a dancer for many years. I was a premier dancer with 'Porgy and Bess,' the opera. And I taught dance some, in different places. "
Maya Angelou
Places
Years
Opera
Related Quotes:
" I'm grateful to intelligent people. That doesn't mean educated. That doesn't mean intellectual. I mean really intelligent. What black old people used to call 'mother wit' means intelligence that you had in your mother's womb. That's what you rely on. You know what's right to do. "
Maya Angelou
Mother
People
Intelligence
" I promised myself that I would write as well as I can, tell the truth, not to tell everything I know, but to make sure that everything I tell is true, as I understand it. And to use the eloquence which my language affords me. "
Maya Angelou
Myself
Truth
True
" I wasn't a pretty girl. I was six feet tall at 15, you know. "
Maya Angelou
Girl
You
Tall
" I love the melodies in the Old Testament, how preachers highlight them when they read from the Scripture. But I was influenced forever by the New Testament. I love the Beatitudes, informing us that the meek shall inherit the earth. "
Maya Angelou
New
Earth
Forever
" I respect myself and insist upon it from everybody. And because I do it, I then respect everybody, too. "
Maya Angelou
Myself
Too
Respect
" When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time. "
Maya Angelou
You
Time
First
" I have great respect for the past. If you don't know where you've come from, you don't know where you're going. I have respect for the past, but I'm a person of the moment. I'm here, and I do my best to be completely centered at the place I'm at, then I go forward to the next place. "
Maya Angelou
Past
Moment
Respect
" Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope. "
Maya Angelou
Destination
Hope
Love
" It is a no-fail, incontrovertible reality: If you get, give. If you learn, teach. You can't do anything with that except do it. "
Maya Angelou
Anything
Learn
Reality
" I'm not a writer who teaches. I'm a teacher who writes. "
Maya Angelou
Teacher
Who
Teaches
" I think music is one of the hero/sheroes of the African-American existence. "
Maya Angelou
Think
Music
I Think
" If you will have a person enslaved, the first thing you must do is convince yourself that the person is subhuman. The second thing you have to do is convince your allies so you'll have some help, and the third and probably unkindest cut of all is to convince that person that he or she is subhuman and deserves it. "
Maya Angelou
You
Help
Person
" I love wisdom. And you can never be great at anything unless you love it. Not be in love with it, but love the thing, admire the thing. And it seems that if you love the thing, and you don't just want to possess it, it will find you. "
Maya Angelou
Admire
Wisdom
You
" I never expected anyone to take care of me, but in my wildest dreams and juvenile yearnings, I wanted the house with the picket fence from June Allyson movies. I knew that was yearning like one yearns to fly. "
Maya Angelou
Fly
Take Care
Movies
" It's so tedious writing cookbooks or writing the recipes because I've never been much of a measurer. But to write a book, you have to measure everything. "
Maya Angelou
Much
Book
Measure
" 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. "
Maya Angelou
Good
Looks
You
" Those of us who submitted or surrendered our ideas and dreams and identities to the 'leaders' must take back our rights, our identities, our responsibilities. "
Maya Angelou
Back
Rights
Dreams
" I'm considered wise, and sometimes I see myself as knowing. Most of the time, I see myself as wanting to know. And I see myself as a very interested person. I've never been bored in my life. "
Maya Angelou
Myself
My Life
Know
" Living in a state of terror was new to many white people in America, but black people have been living in a state of terror in this country for more than 400 years. "
Maya Angelou
People
Living
Black
" In all my work, I try to say - 'You may be given a load of sour lemons, why not try to make a dozen lemon meringue pies?' "
Maya Angelou
Say
Why Not
Try
" 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
Us
Show
" Until blacks and whites see each other as brother and sister, we will not have parity. It's very clear. "
Maya Angelou
Other
See
Sister
" 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. "
Maya Angelou
Know
Still
Man
" Writing and cookery are just two different means of communication. "
Maya Angelou
Writing
Two
Communication
" The only thing is, people have to develop courage. It is most important of all the virtues. Because without courage, you can't practice any other virtues consistently. "
Maya Angelou
Without
You
Courage
" I've conducted the Boston Pops! Imagine that! Me! Maya Angelou! I've sang and danced at La Scala! "
Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou
Boston
Pops
" Loving someone liberates the lover as well as the beloved. And that kind of love comes with age. "
Maya Angelou
Age
Loving
Someone
" When a person is going through hell, and she encounters someone who went through hellish hell and survived, then she can say, 'Mine is not so bad as all that. She came through, and so can I.' "
Maya Angelou
She
Bad
Hell
" I have a feeling that I make a very good friend, and I'm a good mother, and a good sister, and a good citizen. I am involved in life itself - all of it. And I have a lot of energy and a lot of nerve. "
Maya Angelou
Good
Life
I Am
" The first decade of the twentieth century was not a great time to be born black and poor and female in St. Louis, Missouri, but Vivian Baxter was born black and poor, to black and poor parents. Later she would grow up and be called beautiful. As a grown woman she would be known as the butter-colored lady with the blowback hair. "
Maya Angelou
Time
Great
Parents