Maya Angelou

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

Maya Angelou

If I’m going to a new country, I try to learn something about the language and the culture, so I don’t just go bumbling over things.

Maya Angelou

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

If I’m the people’s poet, then I ought to be in people’s hands – and, I hope, in their heart.

Maya Angelou

If men are God’s gift to women, then God must really love gag gifts.

Maya Angelou

If one has courage, nothing can dim the light which shines from within.

Maya Angelou

If somebody is really trying to take your head off with a baseball bat – I don’t know how long you’re supposed to stand there and turn the other cheek, so he or she can get a better angle at taking your head off.

Maya Angelou

If the door has been opened and I’ve been invited, or if I’m not invited and I somehow know I’m supposed to go in there, I put myself together and go in, praying all the while. I try to learn something before I go in. I try to show some respect of the place I’m going into.

Maya Angelou

If we accept being talked to any kind of a way, then we are telling ourselves we are not quite worth the best. And if we have the effrontery to talk to anybody with less than courtesy, we tell ourselves and the world we are not very intelligent.

Maya Angelou

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. You can ask forgiveness of others, but in the end the real forgiveness is in one’s own self.

Maya Angelou