I don't trust people who don't love themselves and tell me,... - Maya Angelou

"If you have only one smile in you give it to the people you love."

"When someone shows you who they are believe them; the first time."

"Fighting for one's freedom, struggling towards being free, is like struggling to be a poet or a good Christian or a good Jew or a good Muslim or good Zen Buddhist. You work all day long and achieve some kind of level of success by nightfall, go to sleep and wake up the next morning with the job still to be done. So you start all over again."

"I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw some things back."

"I speak to the Black experience, but I am always talking about the human condition--about what we can endure, dream, fail at and survive."