Sister, there are people who went to sleep all over the world last night, poor and rich and white and black, but they will never wake again. Sister, those who expected to rise did not, their beds became their cooling boards, and their blankets became their winding sheets. And those dead folks would give anything, anything at all for just five minutes of this weather or ten minutes of that plowing that person was grumbling about. So you watch yourself about complaining, Sister. What you're supposed to do when you don't like a thing is change it. If you can't change it, change the way you think about it. Don't complain.
Maya Angelou
Related There were people who went to sleep last night, poor and rich and white and black, but t... MAYA ANGELOU What you're supposed to do when you don't like a thing is change it. If you can't change it, change ... MAYA ANGELOU I think that when the lies are all told and forgot the truth will be there yet. It dont move about f... CORMAC MCCARTHY I heard them complain sometimes, but it was the ineffectual bitching of people who didn’t expect a... PAUL NEILAN people dont know you till they meet you. dont smile if you dont want to, dont be a false person, don... CAROLINA JANETTE GOMEZ GONZALEZ If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. Don't complain... MAYA ANGELOU I like to open for a band as it brings on sort of a challenge and it makes things more interesting. ... KELLY JONES When you try to talk about yourself, you dont know who you are, or what your like, or what your like... CAROL CHANNING When you love people, you are curious about who they are, what they think, and how they feel. You wa... VIRONIKA TUGALEVA When you love people, you are curious about who they are, what they think, and how they feel. You wa... VIRONIKA TUGALEVA When you're a big sister, it's a great job. I don't know how little sisters feel about t... VENUS WILLIAMS People complain about cold weather during winter, about hot weather during summer and about rain in ... SUBODH GUPTA Those who do not have power over the story that dominates their lives, the power to retell it, rethi... SALMAN RUSHDIE When you see me on TV, that's about as close to my real personality as you can get. There are a ... JOHN CENA People are so isolated, and so alone, and so suspicious, and so competitive with each other, and so ... ARUNDHATI ROY I never could see myself in Playgirl or People or anything like that. You just don't think about tho... BILLY CURRINGTON You think when you wake up in the mornin yesterday dont count. But yesterday is all that does count.... CORMAC MCCARTHY Writing music on your own makes you think a lot about your life. Who are you? Would you change anyth... ENYA A great deal; you are good to those who are good to you. It is all I ever desire to be. If people we... CHARLOTTE BRONTë Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anythin... GEORGE BERNARD SHAW the thing is you can get used to anything you think you cant you want to die but you dont you cant y... ELIZABETH SCOTT Or maybe they just accept that it's wrong in God's eyes, although not in their own, and they'll worr... CRAIG GROESCHEL When people tell you who they are, Maya Angelou famously advised, believe them. Just as importantly,... MARIA POPOVA Don’t fight with narrow minded people; be determined to compel them to change their mindsets about... ISRAELMORE AYIVOR What is clear is that business leaders must commit to champion change - to be transparent about thei... BETH BROOKE There IS a better future for you! Get rid of that negative and defeated attitude. Stop tearing yours... STEPHANIE LAHART There is no other way to change something or someone for the better except to occupy it first. The o... GARY ZUKAV I thought that maybe this would be a good opportunity for elementary school students to start doing ... ASHLEY GISIGER Some people see a magic trick and say, "Impossible!" They clap their hands, turn over their money, a... LEIGH BARDUGO Usually when people are sad, they don't do anything. They just cry over their condition. But when th... MALCOLM X They make a big deal about that, but he didn't do anything. He (went) there to the hotel for five mi... INFIELDER ENRIQUE WILSON One of the most interesting parts of writing is that you can think about it all of the time. Writers... EDGARDO H. 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RICHEY EDWARDS My greatest disappointment is that I believe that those of us who went through the war and tried to ... ELIE WIESEL Magazines and opinions of you and stuff like that, those will change, but your opinion of yourself d... JENNIFER LOVE HEWITT In fact that is why the lives of most women are so vaguely unsatisfactory. They are always doing sec... BRENDA UELAND In the Bible, when God made a covenant with Abraham, He removed Abraham from the pagan world. The pa... CELSO CUKIERKORN We needed a mixture of people that would reach different groups of citizens within Kansas. If you ju... BILL BIDER Some people are just world-changers. Wherever they go, things can't do anything else but change! The... C. JOYBELL C. That’s what I liked about those nuns. You could tell, for one thing, that they never went anywhere... J.D. SALINGER All those girls that I used to get over you ,are all gone and they moved on with their life's and th... EDISON PATRICK AMADO My sister and I said, Dad, are you doing to do anything about that? And he mentioned treatments othe... RAE DAWN CHONG There is this tremendous amount of arrogance and hubris, where somebody can look at something for fi... PENN JILLETTE Life is funny. Things change, people change, but you will always be you, so stay true to yourself an... ZAYN MALIK Your past is not as important as your future. Did you know that? Can't change anything about what yo... SIRI MITCHELL If you don't like something change it; if you can't change it, change the way you think about it. MARY ENGELBREIT Sometimes all it takes to change a life is to decide which beliefs do not serve you and to literally... JOY PAGE If you care too much about what other people might think of you, then you will never think of, or ac... QUI VUONG (EMPOWERMENTALIST) Listen my dear sister! You only fix something, when it’s broken. And you - are far from broken. Sa... ABHIJIT NASKAR Don't waste your time trying to provide people with proof of deceit, in order to keep their love, wi... SHANNON L. ALDER Manufacturing and planning developed their own database, sales had their own, marketing communicatio... JOE DEZARN It’s about Nietzsche’s theory of universal debt. Your parents make it possible for you to believ... THOMM QUACKENBUSH People get comfortable with the way you arethey have formed their opinion of you based on everythi... , I GOT THIS: HOW I CHANGED MY WAYS AND LOST WHAT WEIGHED ME DOWN, 2012 Who are we to say getting incested or abused or violated or any of those things can’t have their p... DAVID FOSTER WALLACE At the end, a job is not just a job, is who you are, and if wanna change who you are, you have to ch... REMY There are seconds, they come only five or six at a time, and you suddenly feel the presence of etern... FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY For better or worse, pessimism without compromise lacks public appeal. 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Successful people are not supe... DAVID JOSEPH SCHWARTZ You pray for things and accept the blessings when they come, you know? And it is about how you talk ... AL JARREAU Some people will appreciate you and some people will love you. Some people may even hate you. It all... DEBASISH MRIDHA
More Maya Angelou
In a magazine, one can get - from cover to cover - 15 to 20 different ideas about life and how to li... MAYA ANGELOU Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud. MAYA ANGELOU Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with deeper ... MAYA ANGELOU Encouragement to all women is - let us try to offer help before we have to offer therapy. That is to... MAYA ANGELOU My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some com... MAYA ANGELOU There is a very fine line between loving life and being greedy for it. MAYA ANGELOU Shakespeare - I was very influenced - still am - by Shakespeare. I couldn't believe that a white... MAYA ANGELOU Though I do manage to mumble around in about seven or eight languages, English remains the most beau... MAYA ANGELOU The hope, the hope that lives in the breast of the black American, is just so tremendous that it ove... 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MAYA ANGELOU We have to confront ourselves. Do we like what we see in the mirror? And, according to our light, ac... MAYA ANGELOU I have a feeling that I make a very good friend, and I'm a good mother, and a good sister, and a... MAYA ANGELOU I refuse to allow any man-made differences to separate me from any other human beings. MAYA ANGELOU During bad circumstances, which is the human inheritance, you must decide not to be reduced. You hav... MAYA ANGELOU I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands; you... MAYA ANGELOU In so many ways, segregation shaped me, and education liberated me. MAYA ANGELOU Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry,... MAYA ANGELOU My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy. That some p... MAYA ANGELOU If I walked into the kitchen without washing my hands as a kid, I'd hear a loud 'A-hem!'... 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MAYA ANGELOU If you have only one smile in you, give it to the people you love. Don't be surly at home, then go o... MAYA ANGELOU When we give cheerfully and accept gratefully, everyone is blessed. MAYA ANGELOU I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will... MAYA ANGELOU I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better. MAYA ANGELOU When Great Trees Fall When great trees fall, rocks on distant hills shudder, li... MAYA ANGELOU Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can't practice any oth... MAYA ANGELOU Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time. MAYA ANGELOU I don't trust people who don't love themselves and tell me, 'I love you.' ... There is an African sa... MAYA ANGELOU Hate, it has caused a lot of problems in the world, but has not solved one yet. MAYA ANGELOU Let gratitude be the pillow upon which you kneel to say your nightly prayer. And let faith be the br... MAYA ANGELOU A woman's heart should be so hidden in God that a man has to seek Him just to find her. MAYA ANGELOU I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life's a bitch. You've got to go... MAYA ANGELOU When someone shows you who they are believe them; the first time. MAYA ANGELOU We need much less than we think we need. MAYA ANGELOU The desire to reach for the stars is ambitious. The desire to reach hearts is wise. MAYA ANGELOU What sets one Southern town apart from another, or from a Northern town or hamlet, or city high-rise... MAYA ANGELOU If on Judgement Day I were summoned by St. Peter to give testimony to the used-to-be sheriff's act o... MAYA ANGELOU You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encoun... MAYA ANGELOU Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told: I'm with you kid. Let's go. MAYA ANGELOU Life loves the liver of it. MAYA ANGELOU A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song. MAYA ANGELOU I answer the heroic question Death where is thy sting? It is here in my heart and mind and memories MAYA ANGELOU ...there is a difference between being convinced and being stubborn. I MAYA ANGELOU We allow our ignorance to prevail upon us and make us think we can survive alone, alone in patches, ... MAYA ANGELOU If you have only one smile in you, give it to the people you love. Don't be surly at home, then go o... MAYA ANGELOU Each of us has the right and the responsibility to asses the road which lie ahead and those over whi... MAYA ANGELOU Since time is the one immaterial object which we cannot influence -- neither speed up nor slow down,... MAYA ANGELOU I believe that every person is born with talent. MAYA ANGELOU A bizarre sensation pervades a relationship of pretense. No truth seems true. A simple morning's gre... MAYA ANGELOU Something made greater by ourselves and in turn that makes us greater. MAYA ANGELOU The sadness of the women's movement is that they don't allow the necessity of love. See, I don't per... MAYA ANGELOU A woman who is convinced that she deserves to accept only the best challenges herself to give the be... MAYA ANGELOU The white American man makes the white American woman maybe not superfluous but just a little kind o... MAYA ANGELOU Education helps one case cease being intimidated by strange situations. MAYA ANGELOU The quality of strength lined with tenderness is an unbeatable combination, as are intelligence and ... MAYA ANGELOU It is only out of ignorance that people are cruel, because they really don MAYA ANGELOU My life has been one great big joke, a dance that's walked a song that's spoke, I laugh so hard I al... MAYA ANGELOU Nature has no mercy at all. Nature says, I'm going to snow. If you have on a bikini and no snowshoes... MAYA ANGELOU At fifteen life had taught me undeniably that surrender, in its place, was as honorable as resistanc... MAYA ANGELOU I find it interesting that the meanest life, the poorest existence, is attributed to God's will, but... MAYA ANGELOU My great hope is to laugh as much as I cry; to get my work done and try to love somebody and have th... MAYA ANGELOU All of childhood's unanswered questions must finally be passed back to the town and answered there. ... MAYA ANGELOU Of all the needs (there are none imaginary) a lonely child has, the one that must be satisfied, if t... MAYA ANGELOU Children's talent to endure stems from their ignorance of alternatives. MAYA ANGELOU The need for change bulldozed road down the center of my mind. MAYA ANGELOU If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. Don't complai... MAYA ANGELOU If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded. MAYA ANGELOU I believe we are still so innocent. The species are still so innocent that a person who is apt to be... MAYA ANGELOU I answer the heroic question "Death, where is they sting?" with "It is here in my heart and mind and... MAYA ANGELOU We all should know that diversity makes for a rich tapestry, and we must understand that all the thr... MAYA ANGELOU If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. Don't complain... MAYA ANGELOU I do not believe that the accident of birth makes people sisters and brothers. It makes them sibling... MAYA ANGELOU The thorn from the bush one has planted, nourished and pruned pricks more deeply and draws more bl... MAYA ANGELOU Nature has no mercy at all. Nature says, "I'm going to snow. If you have on a bikini and no snowshoe... MAYA ANGELOU If you have only one smile in you, give it to the people you love. Don't be surly at home, then go ... MAYA ANGELOU The fact that the adult American Negro female emerges a formidable character is often met with amaze... MAYA ANGELOU If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities. MAYA ANGELOU You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don't make money your goal. Instead, p... MAYA ANGELOU I've learned that no matter what happens, or how bad itseems today, life does go on, and it will be ... MAYA ANGELOU Stepping onto a brand-new path is difficult, but not more difficult than remaining in a situation, w... MAYA ANGELOU I believe talent is like electricity. We don't understand electricity. We use it. You can plug into ... MAYA ANGELOU When you wish someone joy, you wish them peace,love, prosperity, happiness... all the good things. MAYA ANGELOU If men are God's gift to women, then God must really love gag gifts MAYA ANGELOU A woman's beauty is not a gift to man - only a bribe MAYA ANGELOU There's a world of difference between truth and facts. Facts can obscure the truth. MAYA ANGELOU Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told: "I'm with you kid. Let's go." MAYA ANGELOU My grandmother took me to church on Sunday all day long, every Sunday into the night. Then Monday ev... MAYA ANGELOU I promised myself that I would write as well as I can, tell the truth, not to tell everything I know... MAYA ANGELOU I'm a religious woman. And I feel I have responsibility. I have no modesty at all. I'm even ... MAYA ANGELOU Modesty is a learned affectation. And as soon as life slams the modest person against the wall, that... MAYA ANGELOU As far as I knew white women were never lonely, except in books. White men adored them, Black men de... MAYA ANGELOU If you will have a person enslaved, the first thing you must do is convince yourself that the person... MAYA ANGELOU The fact that the adult American Negro female emerges a formidable character is often met with amaze... MAYA ANGELOU To take a few nouns, and a few pronouns, and adverbs and adjectives, and put them together, ball the... MAYA ANGELOU The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned... MAYA ANGELOU We are braver and wiser because they existed, those strong women and strong men... We are who we are... MAYA ANGELOU I thank God I'm myself and for the life I'm given to live and for friends and lovers and bel... MAYA ANGELOU If you have only one smile in you give it to the people you love. MAYA ANGELOU It is impossible to struggle for civil rights, equal rights for blacks, without including whites. Be... MAYA ANGELOU The language of all the interpretations, the translations, of the Judaic Bible and the Christian Bib... MAYA ANGELOU I read the Bible to myself; I'll take any translation, any edition, and read it aloud, just to h... MAYA ANGELOU I think Clinton, after getting into office and into Washington, was shocked at being bludgeoned. So ... MAYA ANGELOU Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness. MAYA ANGELOU All great artists draw from the same resource: the human heart, which tells us that we are all more ... MAYA ANGELOU We can learn to see each other and see ourselves in each other and recognize that human beings are m... MAYA ANGELOU I'm grateful to intelligent people. That doesn't mean educated. That doesn't mean intell... MAYA ANGELOU You may write me down in history with your bitter, twisted lines. You may trod me in the very dirt, ... MAYA ANGELOU I love the melodies in the Old Testament, how preachers highlight them when they read from the Scrip... MAYA ANGELOU When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time. MAYA ANGELOU I know that when I pray, something wonderful happens. Not just to the person or persons for whom I... MAYA ANGELOU You are the sum total of everything you've ever seen, heard, eaten, smelled, been told, forgot -... MAYA ANGELOU I learned a long time ago the wisest thing I can do is be on my own side, be an advocate for myself ... MAYA ANGELOU If we lose love and self respect for each other, this is how we finally die. MAYA ANGELOU It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is... MAYA ANGELOU If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. MAYA ANGELOU All great achievements require time. MAYA ANGELOU Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean. MAYA ANGELOU You can't forgive without loving. And I don't mean sentimentality. I don't mean mush. I ... MAYA ANGELOU I think we all have empathy. We may not have enough courage to display it. MAYA ANGELOU Most people don't grow up. It's too damn difficult. What happens is most people get older. T... MAYA ANGELOU There's something which impels us to show our inner souls. The more courageous we are, the more ... MAYA ANGELOU I have a son, who is my heart. A wonderful young man, daring and loving and strong and kind. MAYA ANGELOU I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people ... MAYA ANGELOU It's one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself, to forgive. Forgive everybody. MAYA ANGELOU We write for the same reason that we walk, talk, climb mountains or swim the oceans - because we can... MAYA ANGELOU I am grateful to be a woman. I must have done something great in another life. MAYA ANGELOU I work very hard, and I play very hard. I'm grateful for life. And I live it - I believe life lo... MAYA ANGELOU I'm just someone who likes cooking and for whom sharing food is a form of expression. MAYA ANGELOU I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself. MAYA ANGELOU The thing to do, it seems to me, is to prepare yourself so you can be a rainbow in somebody else'... MAYA ANGELOU Information helps you to see that you're not alone. That there's somebody in Mississippi and... MAYA ANGELOU Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessi... MAYA ANGELOU One isn't necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we can... MAYA ANGELOU If we don't plant the right things, we will reap the wrong things. It goes without saying. And y... MAYA ANGELOU History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived... MAYA ANGELOU I'm convinced of this: Good done anywhere is good done everywhere. For a change, start by speaki... MAYA ANGELOU What humility does for one is it reminds us that there are people before me. I have already been pai... MAYA ANGELOU Cooking certain dishes, like roast pork, reminds me of my mother. MAYA ANGELOU