So I read one of Maya Angelou's books Letter to my Daughter and I just felt like sharing some of her wisdom. I love Maya's writing and I feel like this book and the quotes I'm going to share are just perfectly wonderful and uplifting. I'm sorry there are so many but I couldn't help myself!
"Be certain that you do not die without having done something wonderful for humanity."
"Never whine. Whining lets a brute know that a victim is in the neighborhood."
"We may act sophisticated and worldly but I believe we feel safest when we go inside ourselves and find home, a place where we belong and maybe the only place we really do."
"That day, I learned that I could be a giver by simply bringing a smile to another person."
"My mother, Vivian Baxter, warned me often not to believe that people really want the truth when they ask, 'How are you?' She said that question was asked around the world in thousands of languages and most people knew that it is simply a conversation starter. No one really expects to be answered, or even wants to know 'Well my knees feel like they are broken, and my back hurts so bad I could fall down and cry.' A response like that would be a conversation stopper. It would end before it could begin. So, we all say, 'Fine thank you, and you?'
I believe in that way we learn to give and receive social lies. We look at friends who have lost dangerous amounts of weight or who have added ungainly pounds and we say, 'You're looking good.' Everybody knows the statement is a blatant lie but, we all swallow the untruth in part to keep the peace and in part because we do not wish to deal with the truth. I wish we could stop the little lies. I don't mean that one has to be brutally frank. I don't believe that we should be brutal about anything, however, it is wonderfully liberating to be honest. One does not have to tell all that one knows, but we should be careful what we do say is the truth."
"We need to have the courage to say obesity is not funny and vulgarity is not amusing. Insolent children and submissive parents are not the characters we want to admire and emulate. Flippancy and sarcasm are not the qualities which we need to include in our daily conversations."
"I maintain an attitude of gratitude. If I insist on being pessimistic, there is always tomorrow.
Today I am blessed."
"All great artists draw from the same resource the human heart, which tells us all that we are more alike than we are unalike."
"What do I think of my country? What is there, which elevates my shoulders and stirs my blood when I hear the words, the United States of America: Do I praise my country enough? Do I laud my fellow citizens enough? What is there about my country that makes me hang my head and avert my eyes when I hear the words the United States of America, and what am I doing about it? Am I relating my disappointment to my leaders and to my fellow citizens, or am I like someone not involved, sitting high and looking low? As Americans, we should not be afraid to respond."
"I find relief from the questions only when I concede that I am not obliged to know everything. I remind myself it is sufficient to know what I know, and that what I know, may not always be true.
When I find myself filling with rage over the loss of a beloved, I try as soon as possible to remember that my concerns and questions should be focused on what I learned or what I have yet to learn from my departed love. What legacy was left which can help me in the art of living a good life?"
"If we tolerate vulgarity, our future will sway and fall under a burden of ignorance. It need not be so. We have the brains and the heart to face our futures bravely."
"Many find themselves happy, without being able to explain the emotion. I think it is simply that they feel generally important."
"Make a difference
Use this degree which you
Have earned to increase
Virtue in your world."
