The sky is the daily bread of the eyes.

I never thought much of the courage of a lion tamer. Inside the cage he is at least safe from people.

Remember you are just an extra in everyone else’s play.

Those who weep for the happy periods which they encounter in history acknowledge what they want; not the alleviation but the silencing of misery.

Nothing is so good as it seems beforehand.

We still do not know one thousandth of one percent of what nature has revealed to us.

Changes and progress very rarely are gifts from above. They come out of struggles from below.

The ancestor of every action is a thought.

He that is giddy thinks the world turns round.

In my entire life, any time I’ve ever lost something, I’ve gotten something even better going around the next corner. It’s like one door closes and another door opens. As long as I can walk through the produce section in every grocery store in this country and eat the grapes that they’re going to throw away, I know I can be fine.

On the outskirts of every agony sits some observant fellow who points.

You cannot hope to sweep someone else away by the force of your writing until it has been done to you.

Get busy living, or get busy dying.

The basis of optimism is sheer terror.

An enemy generally says and believes what he wishes.

I have often said that the lure of flying is the lure of beauty.

Africa is probably one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.

You have to see and smell and feel the circumstances of people to really understand them.

What’s real freedom? Real freedom is being able to not have my way and still be just as happy as if I did.

A few minutes ago every tree was excited, bowing to the roaring storm, waving, swirling, tossing their branches in glorious enthusiasm like worship. But though to the outer ear these trees are now silent, their songs never cease.

My choices, including those related to the day-to-day aspects of life, like the use of a modest car, are related to a spiritual discernment that responds to a need that arises from looking at things, at people and from reading the signs of the times. Discernment in the Lord guides me in my way of governing.

To hold a pen is to be at war.

I don’t believe in an outside agent that creates the world, then walks away. But I feel very strongly there is an intelligence at work in every flower, in every blade of grass, in every cell of my body. And it is that intelligence that, I wouldn’t say created the universe. It is creating the universe. It’s an ongoing process.

Not being beautiful was the true blessing. Not being beautiful forced me to develop my inner resources. The pretty girl has a handicap to overcome.

We do not know what the rules of the game are; all we are allowed to do is to watch the playing. Of course, if we watch long enough, we may eventually catch on to a few of the rules. The rules of the game are what we mean by fundamental physics.

See first, think later, then test. But always see first. Otherwise, you will only see what you were expecting. Most scientists forget that.

I mean, Hawaii is beautiful, but the world is full of beautiful places.

I am quite serious when I say that I do not believe there are, on the whole earth besides, so many intensified bores as in these United States. No man can form an adequate idea of the real meaning of the word, without coming here.

Whether or not I like a piece of data has very little bearing on whether or not I am likely to accept it.

Happiness is within the reach of everyone, rich or poor. Yet comparatively few people are happy. I believe the reason for this is that the majority don’t recognize happiness even when it is within their grasp.

I’m not somebody that thinks about destiny and fate, but I don’t walk away from it when something unfolds.

I think my biggest musical hero growing up was probably Ian MacKaye. He set a great example for all of us local musicians. Still, to this day, I see him as the best example of a right-on musician.

Nature is the source of all true knowledge. She has her own logic, her own laws, she has no effect without cause nor invention without necessity.

One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.

How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds makes ill deeds done!

As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.

Anything you put your mind to and add your imagination into can make your life a lot better and a lot more fun.

Movies are fun, but they are no cure for cancer.

If I’m inspired to make a certain kind of song, I’m going to make that kind of song, no matter if it’s what they know me as or think I am.

All partisan movements add to the fullness of our understanding of society as a whole. They never detract; or, in any case, one must not allow them to do so. Experience adds to experience.

You cannot be creative with people around you.

Every particular in nature, a leaf, a drop, a crystal, a moment of time is related to the whole, and partakes of the perfection of the whole.

Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.

Those who forget good and evil and seek only to know the facts are more likely to achieve good than those who view the world through the distorting medium of their own desires.

Happiness is a ball after which we run wherever it rolls, and we push it with our feet when it stops.

Life is divided into the horrible and the miserable.

In this big ball of people, I’m just one grain of sand on this beach.

If two men agree on everything, you may be sure that one of them is doing the thinking.

It’s amazing how confused and distracted and misdirected so many people are.

The beautiful seems right by force of beauty, and the feeble wrong because of weakness.

I think we consider too much the good luck of the early bird and not enough the bad luck of the early worm.

That’s another hallmark of truth, is that it snaps things together. People write to me all the time and say it’s as if things were coming together in my mind. It’s like the Platonic idea that all learning was remembering. You have a nature, and when you feel that nature articulated, it’s it’s like the act of snapping the puzzle pieces together.

The child inside of you knows how to take things as they come, how to deal most effectively and happily with everything and everyone it encounters on this planet. If you can recapture that childlike essence of your being, you can stay ‚forever young at heart.‘

There is no object so large but that at a great distance from the eye it does not appear smaller than a smaller object near.

There is no such things as ‚best‘ in the world of individuals.

I live halfway between reality and theater at all times. And I was born this way.

I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all the kinds of things you can’t see from the center.

Beauty deprived of its proper foils and adjuncts ceases to be enjoyed as beauty, just as light deprived of all shadows ceases to be enjoyed as light.

Beauty is a manifestation of secret natural laws, which otherwise would have been hidden from us forever.

For me to talk with Obama and the conversation I had with him, I was letting him know that me and my fans have a special connection, and it’s love, and I believe that love is the answer.

I don’t know how much longer I’ll be around. I’ll probably be writing when the Lord says, ‚Maya, Maya Angelou, it’s time.‘