Wisdom from Maya Angelou: I believe that each of us comes from the creator trailing wisps of glory. Ive learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them. My great hope is to laugh as much as I cry; to get my work done and try to love somebody and have the courage to accept the love in return. Try to be a rainbow in someones cloud. Ive learned that you shouldnt go through life with a catchers mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back. We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated. One isnt necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We cant be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest. Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope. Nothing can dim the light which shines from within. “No sun outlasts its sunset but will rise again and bring the dawn.” ”We allow our ignorance to prevail upon us and make us think we can survive alone, alone in patches, alone in groups, alone in races, even alone in genders.” “You cant forgive without loving. And I dont mean sentimentality. I dont mean mush. I mean having enough courage to stand up and say, I forgive. Im finished with it.’” “My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy. That some people, unable to go to school, were more educated and more intelligent than college professors.” “Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.” “It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.” ”Find a beautiful piece of art. If you fall in love with Van Gogh or Matisse or John Oliver Killens, or if you fall love with the music of Coltrane, the music of Aretha Franklin, or the music of Chopin - find some beautiful art and admire it, and realize that that was created by human beings just like you, no more human, no less.” “My greatest blessing has been the birth of my son. My next greatest blessing has been my ability to turn people into children of mine.” “Im convinced of this: Good done anywhere is good done everywhere. For a change, start by speaking to people rather than walking by them like theyre stones that dont matter. As long as youre breathing, its never too late to do some good.” “The idea is to write it so that people hear it and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the heart.” “Growing up, I decided, a long time ago, I wouldnt accept any manmade differences between human beings, differences made at somebody elses insistence or someone elses whim or convenience.” “We have to confront ourselves. Do we like what we see in the mirror? And, according to our light, according to our understanding, according to our courage, we will have to say yea or nay - and rise!” “Im working at trying to be a Christian, and thats serious business. Its like trying to be a good Jew, a good Muslim, a good Buddhist, a good Shintoist, a good Zoroastrian, a good friend, a good lover, a good mother, a good buddy - its serious business.” “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 its good but then shes 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.” “Some critics will write Maya Angelou is a natural writer - which is right after being a natural heart surgeon.” “I speak to the black experience, but I am always talking about the human condition.” “The need for change bulldozed a road down the center of my mind.” Wont it be wonderful when black history and native American history and Jewish history and all of U.S. history is taught from one book. Just U.S. history.” “I long for the time when all human history is taught as one history, because it really is.” “I got my own back.” “I could fall in love with a sumo wrestler if he told stories and made me laugh. Obviously, it would be easier if someone was African-American and lived next door and went to the same church. Because then I wouldnt have to translate.” “I think music is one of the hero/sheroes of the African-American existence.” “I love a Hebrew National hot dog with an ice-cold Corona - no lime. If the phone rings, I wont answer until Im done.” “Timidity makes a person modest. It makes him or her say, Im not worthy of being written up in the record of deeds in heaven or on earth. Timidity keeps people from their good. They are afraid to say, Yes, I deserve it.’”
Posted on: Wed, 28 May 2014 16:56:21 +0000
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