Maya Angelou most encouraging quotes that will make you take action for changing the world

Maya Angelou reciting her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" at President Bill Clinton's inauguration in 1993.

Born #onthisDay, Maya Angelou was an African-American woman with a long and extensive career which includes a prolific writer of poetry, plays, screenplays for television and film, directing, acting, and public speaking. She was also active in the Civil Rights Movement and worked with Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.

Her books center on themes such as racism, identity, family, and travel, but mostly she became popular for her series of seven autobiographies, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences.

She received more than 50 honorary degrees, including a Pulitzer Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011.

To celebrate her birthday we have selected some of her most encouraging quotes that will keep you inspired and encourage to take action for changing the world through gender equality.

Enjoy reading:

1. “There’s a world of difference between truth and facts. Facts can obscure the truth.”

2.“We are only as blind as we want to be.”

3. “Seek patience and passion in equal amounts. Patience alone will not build the temple. Passion alone will destroy its walls.”

4. “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.”

5.“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”

6.“Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take but by the moments that take your breath away.”

7.“I’ve learned that making a living is not the same thing as making a life.”

8.“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.”

9. “I would like to be known as an intelligent woman, a courageous woman, a loving woman, a woman who teaches by being.”

10. “I respect myself and insist upon it from everybody. And because I do it, I then respect everybody, too.”

11.“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.”

12. “Whatever you want to do, if you want to be great at it, you have to love it and be able to make sacrifices for it.”

13. “I believe that every person is born with talent.”

14. “It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is a strength.”

15. “I learned a long time ago the wisest thing I can do is be on my own side, be an advocate for myself and others like me.”

16. “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.”

17. “Hope and fear cannot occupy the same space at the same time. Invite one to stay.”

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

19. “If you are always trying to be normal you will never know how amazing you can be.”

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

21. “Hate. It has caused a lot of problems in this world but it has not solved one yet.”

22. “People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel.”

23. “Ask for what you want, and be prepared to get it.”

24. “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.”

25. “How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and SHE-roes!”

26.“I think a hero is any person really intent on making his a better place for all people.”

27. “Each time a woman stands up for herself, she stands up for all women.”

28. “Courage is the most important of all virtues because without courage you cannot practice any of the other virtues consistently.”

29.“You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.”

30. “History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need to be lived again.”