Maya Angelou

“Courage - you develop courage by doing small things like just as if you wouldn't want to pick up a 100-pound weight without preparing yourself.”

“I never expected anyone to take care of me, but in my wildest dreams and juvenile yearnings, I wanted the house with the picket fence from June Allyson movies. I knew that was yearning like one yearns to fly.”

“The only thing is, people have to develop courage. It is most important of all the virtues. Because without courage, you can't practice any other virtues consistently.”

“You have to develop ways so that you can take up for yourself, and then you take up for someone else. And so sooner or later, you have enough courage to really stand up for the human race and say, 'I'm a representative.'”

“Elimination of illiteracy is as serious an issue to our history as the abolition of slavery.”

“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.”

“Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud.”

“The need for change bulldozed a road down the center of my mind.”

“Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible.”

“In so many ways, segregation shaped me, and education liberated me.”

“Independence is a heady draught, and if you drink it in your youth, it can have the same effect on the brain as young wine does. It does not matter that its taste is not always appealing. It is addictive and with each drink you want more.”

“I'm just like you - I want to be a good human being. I'm doing my best, and I'm working at it. And I'm trying to be a Christian. I'm always amazed when people walk up to me and say, 'I'm a Christian.' I always think, 'Already? You've already got it?' I'm working at it. And at my age, I'll still be working at it at 96.”

“I love the song 'I Hope You Dance' by Lee Ann Womack. I was going to write that song, but someone beat me to it.”

“History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.”

“Loving someone liberates the lover as well as the beloved. And that kind of love comes with age.”

“Those of us who submitted or surrendered our ideas and dreams and identities to the 'leaders' must take back our rights, our identities, our responsibilities.”

“How wonderful it is to be an American. We have known the best of times and the worst of times.”

“The more you know of your history, the more liberated you are.”

“The best comfort food will always be greens, cornbread, and fried chicken.”

“Life loves the liver of it.”

“I was very blessed to have family and friends, but particularly family, who told me I was not only all right, I was just right, so I believe that my brain is a good one, and it's lasting me very well.”