Maya Angelou quotes

Quotes by Maya Angelou

1. Success & failure

   “You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated.”

   – Maya Angelou, interview in Black Women Writers at Work (1983)

   Meaning: You will lose many times in life, but you should never let those losses destroy your spirit. Losing a battle is different from giving up.

   encounter

   – meet or experience

2. Courage & fear

   “Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently.”

   – Maya Angelou

   Meaning: Being honest, kind or fair is easy when it costs nothing. Courage is what lets you stay good when it becomes difficult or dangerous.

   virtues

   – good qualities in a person's character

   consistently

   – all the time, in the same way

3. Courage & fear

   “You may trod me in the very dirt but still, like dust, I'll rise.”

   – Maya Angelou, Still I Rise (1978)

   Meaning: However badly people treat you, you will get up again. Like dust, you cannot be kept down.

   trod

   – walk on and press down with your feet (here used as "tread")

4. Change & growth

   “You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.”

   – Maya Angelou, Letter to My Daughter (2008)

   Meaning: You can't control everything that happens to you, but you can choose not to let it make you smaller or weaker.

   reduced

   – made smaller or less important

5. Travel

   “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, Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now (1993)

   Meaning: Travel shows us that people everywhere share the same basic feelings and needs. Knowing this can help strangers understand each other and become friends.

   bigotry

   – strong, unfair dislike of people who are different

   peoples

   – nations or ethnic groups