Life is going to give you just what you put in it. Put your whole heart in everything you do, and pray, then you can wait.

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!

Most people don't grow up. Most people age. They find parking spaces, honor their credit cards, get married, have children, and call that maturity. What that is, is aging.

I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better.

I am a Woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal Woman, that's me.

Be present in all things and thankful for all things.

Surviving is important. Thriving is elegant.

When I look back, I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature. If I were a young person today, trying to gain a sense of myself in the world, I would do that again by reading, just as I did when I was young.

I sustain myself with the love of family.

The quality of strength lined with tenderness is an unbeatable combination, as are intelligence and necessity when unblunted by formal education.

We spend precious hours fearing the inevitable. It would be wise to use that time adoring our families, cherishing our friends and living our lives.

You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.

I've learned that I still have a lot to learn.

Love heals. Heals and liberates. I use the word love, not meaning sentimentality, but a condition so strong that it may be that which holds the stars in their heavenly positions and that which causes the blood to flow orderly in our veins.

In diversity there is beauty and there is strength.

You can never be great at anything unless you love it.

When you know better you do better.

I've learned that making a 'living' is not the same thing as 'making a life'.

I do not trust people who don't love themselves and yet tell me, 'I love you.' There is an African saying which is: Be careful when a naked person offers you a shirt.

If I am not good to myself, how can I expect anyone else to be good to me?

We will sometimes have defeats in life but you can have defeats without being defeated, you could fail without being a failure. When you see failure and defeats as merely part of the process to get to when.

Hate, it has caused a lot of problems in the world, but has not solved one yet.

Hoping for the best, prepared for the worst, and unsurprised by anything in between.

The main thing in one's own private world is to try to laugh as much as you cry.

I've learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way (s)he handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.

Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise. I rise. I rise.

The desire to reach for the stars is ambitious. The desire to reach hearts is wise.

Ask for what you want and be prepared to get it!

Anything that works against you can also work for you once you understand the Principle of Reverse.

To be left alone on the tightrope of youthful unknowing is to experience the excruciating beauty of full freedom and the threat of eternal indecision. Few, if any, survive their teens. Most surrender to the vague but murderous pressure of adult conformity. It becomes easier to die and avoid conflict than to maintain a constant battle with the superior forces of maturity.

It is this belief in a power larger than myself and other than myself which allows me to venture into the unknown and even the unknowable.

Life loves the liver of it.

No matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow.

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 of you.

I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.

I don't trust anyone who doesn't laugh.

Nothing can dim the light which shines from within.

You will face many defeats in your life, but never let yourself be defeated.

We need much less than we think we need.

remember this: When you cross my doorstep, you have already been raised. With what you have learned...you know the difference between right and wrong. Do right. Don't anybody raise you from the way you have been raised. Know you will have to make adaptations, in love, in relationships, in friends, in society, in work, but don't let anybody change your mind.

You alone are enough. You have nothing to prove to anybody.

I don't trust any revolution where love is not allowed.

If you have only one smile in you give it to the people you love.

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

If you have only one smile in you, give it to the people you love. Don't be surly at home, then go out in the street and start grinning 'Good morning' at total strangers.

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

Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.

History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.

I thank God I'm myself and for the life I'm given to live and for friends and lovers and beloveds, and I thank God for knowing that all those people have already paid for me.

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.