Maya Angelou Quotes

I've been on food stamps and welfare. Anybody help me out? No. No. They gave me hope, and they gave me encouragement, and they gave me a vision. That came from my education.

For a person who grew up in the '30s and '40s in the segregated South, with so many doors closed without explanation to me, libraries and books said, 'Here I am, read me.' Over time I have learned I am at my best around books.

The concept of loneliness and exile and self-sufficiency continually bucks me up.

From being a little girl in the projects, going through all of the mess that I was going through, to ending up at the Inauguration for the first African-American president, I'm speechless right now because I never thought I'd - I never ever - I couldn't even see that far. Even when I ended up in the music business, I couldn't see that.

Education, when delivered properly, can benefit a lot of people and make productive citizens out of those otherwise given no hope.

Conservatism is not about leaving people behind. Conservatism is about empowering people to catch up, to give them the tools at their disposable that make it possible for them to access all the hope, all the promise, all the opportunity that America offers. And our programs to help them should reflect that.

Education remains the key to both economic and political empowerment.

You know, you don't expect everyone to be as educated as everyone else or have the same achievements, but you expect at least to be offered at least some of the opportunities, and libraries are the most simple and the most open way to give people access to books.

Really, what education does is it gives opportunity, but it also gives hope.

I was blessed to grow up in really interesting times and to go back to a home where I was very safe.

Let people have an education and you can't stop them.

Growing up in Oklahoma the way I did, and being raised the way I was raised by my parents, gave me such a strong foundation to go out into the world and fly, so to speak, the way I was able to do.

My family's support and the negative environment of the day toward blacks in South Carolina became the forces that led me out of the South - first to New York, then to Philadelphia, where I found opportunity in the form of a PAL gym and my trainer, Yank Durham.

Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom.

Even in times when it's difficult to figure out, how do you go forward, art - and books - always help.

Freedmen have the natural thirst for knowledge, aspire to power and influence… coupled with learning, and are excited by the special study of books.

People are beginning to realize that education is power, that education is money, that education is an opportunity.

Reading equals hope times change.

If there is still an American dream, reading is one of the bootstraps by which we can all pull ourselves up.

Though he was not a reader himself, my father understood that reading is not just an escape. It is access to a better way of life.

There is nothing more important to improve humanity than education.

Being self-made means putting yourself in position to help others put themselves in position to be successful.

I think education is something that is very important no matter what you are doing. It makes you feel secure, independent, and helps you build confidence in yourself. It grooms your whole personality. So if it starts from the basic level; if the basic education that a girl and a boy receive is the same, I think a lot will change.

I am building a foundation in Cameroon, and it's not just about the sport. The goal of the foundation is not to make a UFC fighter. It's to help kids believe in their dream, to have a dream, to have a purpose in life.

Education is and will be the most powerful tool for individual and social change, and we must do all that it takes to facilitate it.