Maya Angelou

Marguerite Annie Johnson (1928-2014), or Maya Angelou, was an American writer, poet, and civil rights activist. She is most well known for her autobiographical work, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.


All information belongs to everybody all the time. It should be available. It should be accessible...to everyone. It should be open.

And fortunately, being an American, I don't have to whimper, I don't have to whine, I have the right to protest, and I like that.

But once you find the truth, you ought to be prepared to stand on the street corner and use all your gifts to right the wrong.

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

Develop enough courage so that you can stand up for yourself and then stand up for somebody else.

I can become quite angry and burning in anger, but I have never been bitter. Bitterness is a corrosive, terrible acid. It just eats you and makes you sick.

I still feel you should rock the boat. And if you're not in it, you should turn it over. But not unthinkingly.

I think there is always a need in any struggle for sensationalists. They get the headlines, they get the ear of the public, they take the race horse chances.

I'm an American, and most of the time proud of it. Even when I am displeased with what my country is doing, I am still an American who is displeased.

My dear, when people show you who they are, why don't you believe them?

Ofttimes [sensationalists] are the martyrs, but often they're not even right.

Protest without serious consideration is dangerous. You have to back up what you say.

Self-pity in its early stages is as snug as a feather mattress. Only when it hardens does it become uncomfortable.

There is nothing so pitiful as a young cynic because he has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing.

This a wonderful day. I've never seen this one before.

We delight in the beauty of butterfly, rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.

Without courage we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.

You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.

You may encounter many defeats, but you just must never be defeated.

Scott Bradford is a writer and technologist who has been putting his opinions online since 1995. He believes in three inviolable human rights: life, liberty, and property. He is a Catholic Christian who worships the trinitarian God described in the Nicene Creed. Scott is a husband, nerd, pet lover, and AMC/Jeep enthusiast with a B.S. degree in public administration from George Mason University.