12 Inspiring Life Lessons From Maya Angelou

Poet, author, playwright, singer, actress, philanthropist, visionary, professor, beloved world leader. Maya Angelou was one of the world’s most prolific and beloved creative forces, emerging as a universally admired figure.Maya Angelou was famous for her teachings, through her spoken word and her written poetry which explored the and viewpoints of being an African-American woman in the United States, as well as more inspirational works that helped shape modern day and mainstream poetry and prose.

Here are just twelve of Maya Angelou’s most famous quotations and the inspirational life lessons that come from them…

1. “If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.”

2. “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

3. “We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.”

4. “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.”

5. “All great achievements require time.”

6. “A wise woman wishes to be no one’s enemy; a wise woman refuses to be anyone’s victim.”

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

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

9. “If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded.”

10. “It’s one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself, to forgive. Forgive everybody.”

.11. “I work very hard, and I play very hard. I’m grateful for life. And I live it. I believe life loves the liver of it. I live it.”

12. “If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities.”