The power of self-love can’t be denied and the words of wisdom that Maya Angelou has provided over the years hit the hearts and minds of so many of us.
So, today I’m sharing some of the most powerful self-love Maya Angelou Quotes to remind us all that loving yourself truly matters.
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Who is Maya Angelou?
Born in St. Louis, USA, Maya Angelou was a civil rights activist working for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.
She was most famous as a poet and autobiographer but also had a career as a singer, dancer, actress, composer, and Hollywood’s first female black director. (source)
Maya Angelou has been given dozens of awards; most prominently in 2010, President Barack Obama awarded Angelou the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian honor.
Maya Angelou is well-known for many of her books including….
To say that she was an inspiration to millions is an understatement. Maya Angelou focused on raising the moral standards of Americans and at the same time inspiring the rest of the world.
60 Best Self Love Maya Angelou Quotes
“Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with deeper meaning.”
Maya Angelou
Below you’ll find some inspirational self-love quotes that teach you about:
- Self-respect
- Standing up for yourself
- Appreciating the small things
- Having strength and courage when things get tough
- Living your life to the fullest, regardless of your situation
- And of course, how to always love yourself
1. “If you are always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be.”
2. “I must undertake to love myself and to respect myself as though my very life depends upon self-love and self-respect.”
3. “If I am not good to myself, how can I expect anyone else to be good to me?”
4. “Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for all women.”
5. “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!”
6. “I don’t trust people who don’t love themselves and tell me, ‘I love you.’ … There is an African saying which is: Be careful when a naked person offers you a shirt.”
7. “Never make someone a priority when all you are to them is an option.” ― Maya Angelou
8. “I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.”
9. “As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.”
10. “You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.”
Maya Angelou
11. “When you know you are of worth — not asking it but knowing it — you walk into a room with a particular power.”
12. “I do not have to be perfect. All I have to do is show up and enjoy the messy, imperfect, and beautiful journey of my life.”
13. “You forgive yourself for every failure because you tried to do the right thing. God knows that, and you know it.”
14. “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!”
15. “Instead, pursue the things you love doing, and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off you.” – I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
16. “My wish for you is that you continue. Continue to be who and how you are, to astonish a mean world with your acts of kindness. Continue to allow humor to lighten the burden of your tender heart.”
17. “When you know you are of worth — not asking it but knowing it — you walk into a room with a particular power.”
18. “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.”
19. “Seek the fashion which truly fits and befits you. You will always be in fashion if you are true to yourself, and only if you are true to yourself.” – Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now
20. “We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.”
21. “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.”
22. “Each person deserves a day away in which no problems are confronted, no solutions searched for.”
23. “Don’t run yourself down, darling. There are plenty of people in the world who will do that for you.”
Short Self-Love Maya Angelou Quotes
24. “I learned a long time ago the wisest thing I can do is be on my own side.”
25. “Self-love is the greatest gift we can give ourselves.”
26. “You are your best thing, and you are enough.”
27. “You alone are enough. You have nothing to prove to anybody.”
28. “The real difficulty is to overcome how you think about yourself.”
29. “Nothing can dim the light which shines from within.”
30. “Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.”
Maya Angelou
31. “Forgive yourself for not knowing what you didn’t know before you learned it.”
32. “If I am not good to myself, how can I expect anyone else to be good to me?”
33. “You are your own best thing.”
34. “I got my own back.”
35. “Ask for what you want and be prepared to get it!”
36. “Be present in all things and thankful for all things.”
37. “Live as though life was created for you.”
38. “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”
Maya Angelou Quotes About Strength & Courage
39. ”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.”
40. “We need the courage to create ourselves daily, to be bodacious enough to create ourselves daily — as Christians, as Jews, as Muslims, as thinking, caring, laughing, loving human beings. I think that the courage to confront evil and turn it by dint of will into something applicable to the development of our evolution, individually and collectively, is exciting, honorable.”
41. “Develop enough courage so that you can stand up for yourself and then stand up for somebody else.”
42. “I believe that the most important single thing, beyond discipline and creativity, is daring to dare.”
Maya Angelou
43. “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.”
44. “I would like to be known as an intelligent woman, a courageous woman, a loving woman, a woman who teaches by being.”
45. “Each of us has that right, that possibility, to invent ourselves daily. If a person does not invent herself, she will be invented. So, to be bodacious enough to invent ourselves is wise.”
46. “I have a certain way of being in this world, and I shall not, I shall not be moved.”
47. “Try to live your life in a way that you will not regret years of useless virtue and inertia and timidity. Take up the battle, take it up! It’s yours, this is your life, this is your world.”
48. “I had to trust life, since I was young enough to believe that life loved the person who dared to live it.”
49. “A Woman in harmony with her spirit is like a river flowing. She goes where she will without pretense and arrives at her destination prepared to be herself and only herself ”
50. “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.”
52. “A wise woman wishes to be no one’s enemy; a wise woman refuses to be anyone’s victim.”
53. “I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life’s a bitch. You’ve got to go out and kick ass.”
54. “Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time.”
55. “Your crown has been bought and paid for. Put it on your head and wear it.”
54. “No matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow.”
56. Difficult is a far cry from impossible. The distance between these two lies hope. Hope and fear cannot occupy the same space at the same time. Invite one to stay.
57. “Seek patience and passion in equal amounts. Patience alone will not build the temple. Passion alone will destroy its walls.”
58. It’s one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself, to forgive. Forgive everybody.
Related: 100 Empowering Words For Woman To Use
Poems
I’ll leave you with these beautiful Maya Angelou poems.
59. “Still I Rise”
“You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.
Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
’Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.
Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I’ll rise.
Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops,
Weakened by my soulful cries?
Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don’t you take it awful hard
’Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines
Diggin’ in my own backyard.
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.
Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I’ve got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?
Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.”
― Maya Angelou
60. “Phenomenal Woman”
Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I’m telling lies.
I say,
It’s in the reach of my arms,
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.
I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It’s the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.
Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can’t touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them,
They say they still can’t see.
I say,
It’s in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.
Now you understand
Just why my head’s not bowed.
I don’t shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing,
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It’s in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need for my care.
’Cause I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.
– Maya Angelou
Final Thoughts
Thank you Maya Angelou for providing advice, support and love to so many of us.
These self-love Maya Angelou quotes provide some of the best guidance on how to live a good life. She was an advocate for strength, courage and loving yourself unconditionally.
What are your favourite Self Love Maya Angelou Quotes?
Share in the comments below!
More Self Love Resources:
- 57 Self-Compassion Quotes To Show Yourself Kindness
- 107 Empowering Quotes For Self-Love & Healing
- 125 Things To Love About Yourself
- How To Start Living For Youself: 17 Life Tips
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