MAYA ANGELOU

"Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean."

"Talent is like electricity. We don't understand electricity. We use it."

"Don't let the man bring you down."

"It is this belief in a power larger than myself and other than myself which allows me to venture into the unknown and even the unknowable."

"The idea is to write it so that people hear it and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the heart."

"Surviving is important. Thriving is elegant."

"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."

"A friend may be waiting behind a stranger's face."

"Success is loving life and daring to live it."

"Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him."

"I hope that I may always desire more than I can accomplish."

"I've learned that even when I have pains, I don't have to be one."

"In all the world, there is no heart for me like yours. In all the world, there is no love for you like mine."

"I don't trust anyone who doesn't laugh."

"Life is going to give you just what you put in it. Put your whole heart in everything you do, and pray, then you can wait."

"Making a decision to write was a lot like deciding to jump into a frozen lake."

"The main thing in one's own private world is to try to laugh as much as you cry."

"Let gratitude be the pillow upon which you kneel to say your nightly prayer. And let faith be the bridge you build to overcome evil and welcome good."

"Everything in the universe has a rhythm, everything dances."

"I sustain myself with the love of family."

"A woman's heart should be so hidden in God that a man has to seek him just to find her."

"If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded."