legacy Quotes

Hold those things that tell your history and protect them. During slavery, who was able to read or write or keep anything? The ability to have somebody to tell your story to is so important. It says: 'I was here. I may be sold tomorrow. But you know I was here.'

We are braver and wiser because they existed, those strong women and strong men... We are who we are because they were who they were. It's wise to know where you come from, who called your name.

The terrorist action of 9/11 gave birth to President Obama's entry to the White House. Not directly, but indirectly.

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.'

I became the kind of parent my mother was to me.

You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.

Nelson Mandela is physically separated from us, but his soul and spirit will never die. He belongs to the whole world because he is an icon of equality, freedom and love, the values we need all the time everywhere.

If you don't focus on the future generation, it means you are destroying your country.

I hope that one day when I'll go back to Pakistan, I will build a university like Harvard.

I don't want to be remembered as the girl who was shot. I want to be remembered as the girl who stood up.