30 Maya Angelou Quotes to Inspire and Empower You

One of America’s most loved poets and authors, Maya Angelou was a beacon of inspiration. Her empowering quotes reverberate in the work ethics of some of the most powerful women in America and around the world. She worked for the upliftment of women and black people throughout her life and dreamed of a society where everyone could find a place. Here are some of her most powerful quotes that will leave you inspired and empowered.

• You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them. Try to be a rainbow in someone else's cloud. Do not complain. Make every effort to change things you do not like. If you cannot make a change, change the way you have been thinking. You might find a new solution.  
• We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.
• I’ve learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision.
• 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.
• A wise woman wishes to be no one’s enemy; a wise woman refuses to be anyone’s victim.   
• 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.
• You may shoot me with your words, you may cut me with your eyes, you may kill me with your hatefulness, but still, like air, I'll rise!
• You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.
• Each one of us has lived through some devastation, some loneliness, some weather superstorm or spiritual superstorm, when we look at each other we must say, I understand. I understand how you feel because I have been there myself. We must support each other and empathize with each other because each of us is more alike than we are unalike.
• If you are going down a road and don't like what's in front of you, and look behind you and don't like what you see, get off the road. Create a new path! 
• 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.
• My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style 
• Stepping onto a brand-new path is difficult, but not more difficult than remaining in a situation, which is not nurturing to the whole woman.
• You can’t forgive without loving. And I don’t mean sentimentality. I don’t mean mush. I mean having enough courage to stand up and say, ‘I forgive. I’m finished with it. 
• Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can’t practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.
• I’m convinced of this: Good done anywhere is good done everywhere. For a change, start by speaking to people rather than walking by them like they’re stones that don’t matter. As long as you’re breathing, it’s never too late to do some good.  
• I know that when I pray, something wonderful happens. Not just to the person or persons for whom I’m praying, but also something wonderful happens to me. I’m grateful that I’m heard.  
• Seek patience and passion in equal amounts. Patience alone will not build the temple. Passion alone will destroy its walls.
• You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead, pursue the things you love doing, and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off you.
• When great souls die, after a period peace blooms, slowly and always irregularly, soothing electric vibration. Our senses, restored, never to be the same, whisper to us. They existed. They existed. We can be. Be and be better. For they existed.
• You are the sum total of everything you’ve ever seen, heard, eaten, smelled, been told, forgot – it’s all there. Everything influences each of us, and because of that, I try to make sure that my experiences are positive.
• Hoping for the best, prepared for the worst, and unsurprised by anything in between.
• If I am not good to myself, how can I expect anyone else to be good to me?
• If you’re always trying to be normal you will never know how amazing you can be.
• Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take but by the moments that take your breath away.
• You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.
• Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.
• If you have only one smile in you give it to the people you love.
• My great hope is to laugh as much as I cry; to get my work done and try to love somebody and have the courage to accept the love in return.
• It’s one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself, to forgive. Forgive everybody.

These are some of the most inspirational and empowering quotes from Maya Angelou. Her words are not just catered toward women's power but summon a person’s inner strength.