Maya Angelou Quotes

Our goal is to move forward, but we know that to avoid falling backward, we must be willing to look backward and to come to terms with what happened in the past.

Anybody who has gone through a life-changing experience will tell you there is a different understanding of what is real and what is important, and when you are going through different moments, you can reflect and go, 'I have been through worse.'

What happened in the past that was painful has a great deal to do with what we are today, but revisiting this painful past can contribute little or nothing to what we need to do now.

I don't think that trauma is an illusion; there is no question in my mind that circumstances beyond our control can shape and define us. But ultimately, we make choices about letting ourselves be defined by our pasts.

I thank God for my failures. Maybe not at the time but after some reflection. I never feel like a failure just because something I tried has failed.

I'm a person that carries everything that happened to me in my past, with me into the future. I refuse to let it make me bitter. I still completely believe in love and I remain open to anything that will happen to me.

I've never tried to block out the memories of the past, even though some are painful. I don't understand people who hide from their past. Everything you live through helps to make you the person you are now.

I think in order to move forward into the future, you need to know where you've been.

Turn your wounds into wisdom.

I should only look back at moments that were disparaging, look down upon, negative for me - moments where I could learn something. And if I have been able to use that learning in future, then I am happy about it.

I can't change the past. It made me what I am.

I get why we don't want to be in pain, but there's something very essential about what happens when we're in pain and some of the growth that can come from it if we stare at it straight in the face.

I am a big believer in life in this fact: Scars are a very beautiful thing.

You can't change history. These things happened the way they did. What you can change is how you look at it and how you understand that it takes the good moments and it takes the difficult moments to move forward.

Scars are a truly beautiful thing. Yes, they can be a little ugly on the outside, but scars show that you're a survivor, that you made it through something, and not only did you make it through, but now you're stronger and wiser and more educated because of that tough time that you went through.

We need the courage to learn from our past and not live in it.

To heal our wounds, we need courage to face them.

You are not defined by your past. You are prepared by your past.

And all the things that break you are all the things that make you strong. You can't change the past 'Cause it's gone, and you just gotta move on.

Suffering does not necessarily ennoble you.

I think about all my successes and failures, and sometimes the failures stick in your head as much as the wins. But you do move on.

However confused the scene of our life appears, however torn we may be who now do face that scene, it can be faced, and we can go on to be whole.

You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don't try to forget the mistakes, but you don't dwell on it. You don't let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space.

If you don't make errors, how can you be conscious?