You did in your twenties what you knew how to do, and when you knew better you did better.When people show you who they are, believe them.My dear, when people show you who they are, why don't you believe them? Why must you be shown 29 times before you can see who they really are? Why can't you get it the first time?.Maya Angelou Letter to My Daughter (2009).Celia Cruz.All great artists draw from the same resource: the human heart, which tells us all that we are more alike than we are unalike. The list of singers, musicians, and poets must include David the harpist from the Old Testament, Aesop the Storyteller, Omar Khayyam the Tent Maker, Shakespeare the Bard of Avon, Louis Armstrong the genius of New Orleans, Om Kalsoum the soul of Egypt, Frank Sinatra, Mahalia Jackson, Dizzy Gillespie, Ray Charles. There are certain artists who belong to all the people, everywhere, all the time.You are fat and thin and pretty and plain, gay and straight, educated and unlettered, and I am speaking to you all. You are Black and White, Jewish and Muslim, Asian, Spanish-speaking, Native American and Aleut. I gave birth to one child, a son, but I have thousands of daughters. Be certain that you do not die without having done something wonderful for humanity. Whining lets a brute know that a victim is in the neighborhood. If you cannot make a change, change the way you have been thinking. Make every effort to change things you do not like. My life has been long, and believing that life loves the liver of it, I have dared to try many things, sometimes trembling, but daring, still…You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.As quoted in Goal Mapping : How to Turn Your Dreams into Realities (2006) by Brian Mayne, p.This is one of the great lessons of war and life. I am capable of what every other human is capable of.
Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can't practice any other virtue consistently.We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest. Without courage we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency.Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas (1976), chapter 5.Each nicety becomes more sterile and each withdrawal more permanent. A simple morning's greeting and response appear loaded with innuendo and fraught with implications. A bizarre sensation pervades a relationship of pretense.Only when it hardens does it become uncomfortable. Self-pity in its early stages is as snug as a feather mattress.The Distinguished Annie Clark Tanner Lecture, 16th-annual Families Alive Conference, Weber State University, Full text online at.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.".We delight in the beauty of butterfly, rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty*.Quotes Without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently. 1.3 Conversations with Maya Angelou (1989).1.1 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969).