Maya Angelou Up Quotations

At 50, I began to know who I was. It was like waking up to myself.

That's the biggest gift I can give anybody: 'Wake up, be aware of who you are, what you're doing and what you can do to prevent yourself from becoming ill.'

Growing up, I decided, a long time ago, I wouldn't accept any manmade differences between human beings, differences made at somebody else's insistence or someone else's whim or convenience.

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

Continue. Be loving and be strong. Be fierce and be kind. And don't give in and don't give up.'

We can be better, we can be wiser, we can be more kind. Yes we have to change. We have to grow up and stop acting like 10 years old. Yes there is much to do, much to see, much to go into.

To grow up is to stop putting blame on parents

Everyone grows old but not everyone grows up.

I am convinced that most people do not grow up ... our real selves, the children inside, are still innocent and shy as magnolias.

Age is nothing; waking up is everything.

I made the decision to quit show business. Give up the skintight dresses and manicured smiles. The false concern over sentimental lyrics. I would never again work to make people smile inanely and would take on the responsibility of making them think.

Most people don't grow up. It's too damn difficult. What happens is most people get older.

Until recently each generation found it more expedient to plead guilty to the charge of being young and ignorant, easier to take the punishment meted out by the older generation (which had itself confessed to the same crime short years before). The command to grow up at once was more bearable than the faceless horror of wavering purpose, which was youth.

If growing up is painful for the Southern Black girl, being aware of her displacement is the rust on the razor that threatens the throat. It is an unnecessary insult.

I am convinced that most people do not grow up...We marry and dare to have children and call that growing up. I think what we do is mostly grow old. We carry accumulation of years in our bodies, and on our faces, but generally our real selves, the children inside, are innocent and shy as magnolias.

I have no modesty. Modesty is a learned affectation. It's like decal stuck up on a person.