Maya Angelou Quotes

My concern is how we learn to be genuine human beings.

It's important to determine not just the quality of your mind but the fullness of your heart.

It's not a very nice thing to not have empathy. I would like to have empathy. In the past I haven't been very empathetic with other people.

I'm sensitive to how people are feeling if they feel like they got it wrong, and sensitive to the people who are kind of gloating that they knew all along, they figured it out. I'm loving them through this process, because I know that it took me a while once I found out that it was me.

I hope you will be yourself, human, even a little sentimental, possessed of a sense of humor and a sense of humility. . . . There are arrogant people in this world and, what is worse, arrogant judges.

The more that we self-analyze ourselves, the nicer we are to people and to ourselves, and the more we understand each other.

Counseling has to do with intuition, with work on oneself, with the quietness of one's mind and the openness of one's heart.

We must each achieve greater individual consciousness and self-knowledge, and project mindful kindness toward everything and everyone.

My Brain and My Heart are my Temples. My true Religion is Kindness.

My work as a human being is to quiet my mind, open my heart and do what I can to relieve the suffering with as much wisdom, skill, whatever I got.

Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.

I take the greatest lesson from compassion - it takes away all the conceit out of my life.

Most of your suffering comes from the lack of understanding of yourself and others.

When men hate or blame you, or say hurtful things about you, look deeply into their hearts and see what kind of men they are. You'll see how unnecessary it is to strain after their good opinion. Yet you must still think kindly of them. they are your neighbors. The gods help them as they do you, by dreams and oracles, to win their hearts' desires.

In every moment we make a decision -- whether conscious or unconscious. Will I choose to open my heart, send love, withhold judgment and thus free myself from fear? Or will I close my heart, project fear instead of extending love, judge others, and thus bind myself to fear? The choice is mine and mine alone.

He who doesn't consider himself is seldom considerate of others.

Consciously be sensitive to others, and try to elevate their level of consciousness. Don't do this by being preachy and telling them that they 'should' do this or that. Do it by raising your own level of energy and recognizing what's best in others.

I know that there are many things I could do, but I'm not interested. It's more important to be loving and to have a lively mind.

If I want to be a better person for whoever is in my life, I have to learn.

Compassion is the key to living outside the confines of your lower self.

But what do we know of the heart nearest to our own? What do we know of our own heart?

I'm a lot more interested in people than I used to be. I used to be most interested in abstract ideas, and people were an afterthought, but that's changed a bit.

When you practice Buddhism, you have to always self-reflect, and you can't avoid your problems. That makes me understand human beings better. I feel that the more I do that in my own life, the more I can see how to play a character.

You just do the best you can, and when you're able to connect with people, and when you do, it's just incredibly gratifying.

Everyone loses touch with their aspiration, and we need the heart to return to what we really care about. All of this is based on developing greater lovingkindness and compassion.