50 LOVE LESSON QUOTES FROM MAYA ANGELO
The great Maya Angelou can teach us love lessons, not only about loving others but about loving ourselves.
Maya Angelou – Life
Born April 4th, 1928, Maya Angelou is known as a memoirist, essayist, and poet. She authored several books of poetry, books of essays, plays, movies, and television shows. She was also a journalist, a historian, songwriter, dancer, stage and screen producer, director, performer, and singer.
Maya Angelou – Awards and Honors
Maya Angelou was an inspirational, beloved and celebrated poet and author with dozens of awards, and over 50 honorary degrees. She recited her poem “On the Pulse of Morning” at Bill Clinton’s inauguration, making her the first poet since 1961 to deliver an inaugural recitation. In 2000, she received the National Medal of Arts, and in 2010 President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of the country’s highest honors.
Maya Angelou – Activist
Maya Angelou worked with Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, as one of the Civil Rights most prominent activists. She devoted her life to being a voice for women and black people, believing all could find their place.
Maya Angelou – Legacy
On May 28, 2014, the great Maya Angelou passed away, leaving a cherished legacy that will be remembered for decades to come. I’ve gathered 50 of Maya Angelou’s quotes to inspire you in loving yourself and loving others, hoping that it injects beauty and light into your day.
LOVE LESSONS – LOVING YOURSELF
Self-Worth
1. “If I am not good to myself, how can I expect anyone else to be good to me?”
2. “Let nothing dim the light that shines from within.”
3. “I learned a long time ago the wisest thing I can do is be on my own side, be an advocate for myself and others like me.”
4. “I respect myself and insist upon it from everybody. And because I do it, I then respect everybody, too.”
5. “Your reputation is the most important thing you’ll ever have. Not clothes, nor money, not the big cars you may drive. If your reputation is good, you can achieve anything you want in the world.”
6. “Never make someone a priority when all you are to them is an option.”
7. “A wise woman wishes to be no one’s enemy; a wise woman refuses to be anyone’s victim.”
Acceptance
8. “I did then what I knew best, when I knew better, I did better.”
9. “Take a day to heal from the lies you’ve told yourself and the ones that have been told to you.”
10. “The real difficulty is to overcome how you think about yourself.”
11. “I created myself. I have taught myself so much.”
Courage
12. “One isn’t necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can’t be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.”
13. “We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.”
14. “What is a fear of living? It’s being preeminently afraid of dying. It is not doing what you came here to do, out of timidity and spinelessness. The antidote is to take full responsibility for yourself – for the time you take up and the space you occupy. If you don’t know what you’re here to do, then just do some good.”
15. “Whatever you want to do, if you want to be great at it, you have to love it and be able to make sacrifices for it.”
16. “A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song”
17. “I know for sure that love saves me and that it is here to save us all.”
18. “The only way out of something is all the way through it.”
19. “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.”
20. “The woman who truly intends to live a good life is already living phenomenally since intent is part of the achievement.”
Forgiveness
21. “You can’t forgive without loving. And I don’t mean sentimentality. I don’t mean mush. I mean having enough courage to stand up and say, ‘I forgive. I’m finished with it.”
22. “It’s one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself, to forgive. Forgive everybody.”
23. “Forgive yourself for not knowing what you didn’t know before you learned it.”
24. “If you must look back, do so forgivingly. If you will look forward, do so prayerfully. But the wisest course would be to be present in the present gratefully.”
25. “Remember, people will judge you by your actions not your intentions. You may have a heart of gold but so does a hard-boiled egg.”
LOVE LESSONS – LOVING OTHERS
Give Freely
26. “If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded.”
27. “Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.”
28. “If you have only one smile in you give it to the people you love.”
29. “I’m convinced of this: Good done anywhere is good done everywhere. For a change, start by speaking to people rather than walking by them like they’re stones that don’t matter. As long as you’re breathing, it’s never too late to do some good.”
30. “Love is like a virus. It can happen to anybody at any time”
31. “Loving someone liberates the lover as well as the beloved. And that kind of love comes with age.”
32. “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.”
33. “I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back.”
34. “Faith is the evidence of the unseen.”
35. “I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver.”
36. “Human beings are like some plants. If we pause a few seconds in our journey, we begin setting down roots, tendrils that entangle other people as we ourselves are entangled.”
37. “I’ve learned that every day you should reach out and touch someone. People love a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back.”
38. “I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels.”
Trust and Forgiveness
39. “You can’t forgive without loving. And I don’t mean sentimentality. I don’t mean mush. I mean having enough courage to stand up and say, ‘I forgive. I’m finished with it.”
40. “We can learn to see each other and see ourselves in each other and recognize that human beings are more alike than we are unalike.” “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time”
41. “I’ve learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision.”
42. “I had to trust life, since I was young enough to believe that life loved the person who dared to live it.”
43. “Believe people when they tell you who they are. They know themselves better than you.”
44. “It’s hard because people think they have something to lose and the truth is they have everything to gain in trying to love somebody.”
Charity and Gratitude
45. “I learned that to be charitable with gestures and words can bring enormous joy and repair injured feelings.”
46. “Seek patience and passion in equal amounts. Patience alone will not build the temple. Passion alone will destroy its walls.”
47. “On this platform of peace, we can create a language to translate ourselves to ourselves and to each other.”
48. “When you get, give. When you learn, teach.”
49. “Be present in all things, and thankful for all things,”
50. “I am grateful to have been loved and to be loved now and to be able to love.”
More Inspiration
For more inspiration about loving yourself, check out:
10 WAYS TO BUILD CONFIDENCE (to live your wildest dreams)
HOW TO GET UP FROM A FALL, LIVING LIFE WITH RESILIENCE
HOW TO STOP LETTING OTHER PEOPLE NEGATIVELY IMPACT YOUR SELF-ESTEEM