Maya Angelou

The most called-upon prerequisite of a friend is an accessible ear.

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.

...love costs all we are
and will ever be
Yet it is only love
which sets us free.

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

Success is loving life and daring to live it.

"...We, Angels and Mortals, Believers and Non-believers,

Look heavenward and speak the word aloud.

Peace.

We look at our world and speak the word aloud.

Peace.

We look at each other, then into ourselves,

And we say without shyness or apology or hesitation:

       Peace, My Brother.

           Peace, My Sister.

               Peace, My Soul."

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.

The fact that the adult American Negro female emerges a formidable character is often met with amazement, distaste and even belligerence. It is seldom accepted as an inevitable outcome of the struggle won by survivors, and deserves respect if not enthusiastic acceptance.

For Africa to me . . . is more than a glamorous fact. It is a historical truth. No man can know where he is going unless he knows exactly where he has been and exactly how he arrived at his present place.

As far as I knew white women were never lonely, except in books. White men adored them, Black men desired them and Black women worked for them.