#Maya angelou quote when someone free

Ĭompassion How could I explain a young Black boy to a grown man who had been born White? -Īfrican-Americans race Content is of great importance, but we must not underrate the value of style. Talent The quality of strength lined with tenderness is an unbeatable combination. Ĭourage I believe that each of us comes from the Creator trailing wisps of glory. Īlternatives children human nature If one has courage, nothing can dim the light which shines from within.

Ĭhildren's talent to endure stems from their ignorance of alternatives.

Jealousy insecurity A conversation between friends can sound as melodic as a scripted song. Singin’ and Swingin’ and Getting’ Merry Like Christmas Īfrican-Americans slavery Jealousy is conceived only in insecurity and must be nourished in fear. My mother says a woman who will tell her own age will tell anything. įame Here then is my Christian lack: If I'm struck then I'll strike back. įriendship listening If a little learning is dangerous, a little fame can be devastating. Writing The most called-upon prerequisite of a friend is an accessible ear. There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you. Ĭreativity I mean to make myself more to deal with than the brute can handle. The need for change bulldozed a road down the center of my mind. History When cane straps flog the body dark and lean, you feel the blow. Love We can only know where we're going if we know where we've been. It doesn't just hold-that's ego-love liberates!. Poetry All great artists draw from the same resource: the human heart.

Knowledge Only poets care about what happened to the snows of yesteryear. Ignorance All knowledge is spendable currency depending upon the market. įriendship Blithering ignorance can be found wherever you choose to live. There is an intimate laughter to be found only among friends. I'd rather be an old man's darling than a young man's slave. What child can resist a mother who laughs freely and often?. Honey, tired don't mean lazy, and every goodbye ain't gone. įood Hold those things that tell your history and protect them. ĭoing your best All people use food for more reasons than mere nutrition. Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now I do my best because I'm counting on you counting on me. Speech Spirit is an invisible force made visible in all life. Poetry A person's speech is a mirror to her or his soul. The Language of Life: A Festival of Poets Poetry is music written for the human voice.

#Maya angelou quote when someone free

įuture When old folks laugh, they free the world. įorgiveness One person standing on the Word of God is the majority. įorgiveness Forgiveness is the greatest gift you can give yourself. Living life as art requires a readiness to forgive. Love courage Love, by nature, exacts a pain unequalled on the rack. īigotry prejudice Have enough courage to love. They would give anything for five minutes of what that person was complaining about.' -Ĭomplaining The man who is a bigot is the worst thing God has got. After hearing someone complain, my grandmother would say, 'There are people all over the world, Black and White, rich and poor, who went to sleep when that person went to sleep, and they have never awakened. Īction motivational I'll protest like the dickens, but I don't complain. Ĭomplaining Nothing will work unless you do. If you can't change it, change the way you think about it. The poem’s conclusion states that laughter is still the best medicine: “When old folks laugh, they consider the promise / of dear painless death, and generously / forgive life for happening / to them.Most popular Maya Angelou Quotes What you're supposed to do when you don't like a thing is change it. In the poem “ Old Folks Laugh,” included in her 1997 collection of poetry, I Shall Not Be Moved, she made clear that her advice about laughter wasn’t just about not taking yourself too seriously. “I don’t.”Īs recently as last year, she expanded on that wisdom again, when speaking to Anderson Cooper on CNN: A 1998 report of her visit to the University of Buffalo included that idea: “Don’t trust people who don’t laugh,” she told the audience, after speaking about a painful time in her own life. It was a piece of advice she dispensed frequently often over the years, particularly when speaking to young people. Still, Angelou repeatedly took the chance to remind others about the importance of laughter. Not every moment in the life of Maya Angelou, the prolific writer who died today at 86, was something to laugh at: as TIME’s Lev Grossman recounts in his remembrance, her youth was a period marred by abuse and suffering.