And so you can try to stretch, stretch, stretch yourself so you can internalize, ‘Homo sum, humani nil a me alienum puto. If a human being dreams a great dream, dares to love somebody if a human being dares to be Martin King, or Mahatma Gandhi, or Mother Theresa, or Malcolm X if a human being dares to be bigger than the condition into which she or he was born-it means so can you. The fact is they’re using made-up names, made-up people, made-up places, and made-up times, but they’re telling the truth about the human being- what we are capable of, what makes us lose, laugh, weep, fall down, and gnash our teeth and wring our hands and kill each other and love each other.
I look at some of the great novelists, and I think the reason they are great is that they’re telling the truth. Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time. 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. The more you use, the more you have.Ī cynical young person is almost the saddest sight to see, because it means that he or she has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing. Instead pursue the things you love doing and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off of you.Īll men are prepared to accomplish the incredible if their ideals are threatened. You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. If we don’t have that we never grow, we never learn, and sure as hell we should never teach. The real difficulty is to overcome how you think about yourself. When a larger society sees them as unattractive, as threats, as too black or too white or too poor or too fat or too thin or too sexual or too asexual, that’s rough. I think that young men and women are so caught by the way they see themselves. You can ask forgiveness of others, but in the end the real forgiveness is in one’s own self. So you say to people who you think you may have injured, ‘I’m sorry,’ and then you say to yourself, ‘I’m sorry.’ If we all hold on to the mistake, we can’t see our own glory in the mirror because we have the mistake between our faces and the mirror we can’t see what we’re capable of being. But once you do and you see the mistake, then you forgive yourself and say, ‘Well, if I’d known better I’d have done better,’ that’s all. It is very important for every human being to forgive herself or himself because if you live, you will make mistakes- it is inevitable. But what I learned to do many years ago was to forgive myself. I don’t know if I continue, even today, always liking myself. 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.įor a person who grew up in the ’30s and ’40s in the segregated South, with so many doors closed without explanation to me, libraries and books said, ‘Here I am, read me.’ Over time I have learned I am at my best around books. I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way (s) he handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights. Try to choose the wisest thing and once you’ve chosen the wisest thing go out and try to achieve it. The reward is great.Ĭontinue to be bold, courageous.
MAYA ANGELOU POEMS WE ARE MORE ALIKE FREE
You only are free when you realize you belong no place - you belong every place - no place at all.
If you are always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be.
They offer timeless wisdom and advice on everything from what to do with haters to the importance of reading and love. Through that I’ve pulled out these 25 quotes that resonated with me. Notably, Conversations with Maya Angelou, Letters to my Daughter, and What I Know Now: Letters to My Younger Self.
I’ve been slowly working my way through some of Maya Angelou’s material.
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