Quotes from Mom & Me & Mom

Maya Angelou ·  201 pages

Rating: (13.3K votes)


“Love heals. Heals and liberates. I use the word love, not meaning sentimentality, but a condition so strong that it may be that which holds the stars in their heavenly positions and that which causes the blood to flow orderly in our veins.”
― Maya Angelou, quote from Mom & Me & Mom


“I will look after you and I will look after anybody you say needs to be looked after, any way you say. I am here. I brought my whole self to you. I am your mother.”
― Maya Angelou, quote from Mom & Me & Mom


“remember this: When you cross my doorstep, you have already been raised. With what you have learned...you know the difference between right and wrong. Do right. Don't anybody raise you from the way you have been raised. Know you will have to make adaptations, in love, in relationships, in friends, in society, in work, but don't let anybody change your mind.”
― Maya Angelou, quote from Mom & Me & Mom


“You see, baby, you have to protect yourself. If you don’t protect yourself, you look like a fool asking somebody else to protect you.” I thought about that for a second. She was right. A woman needs to support herself before she asks anyone else to support her.”
― Maya Angelou, quote from Mom & Me & Mom


“Go," she whispered. "Go. Show them you spell your name W-O-M-A-N.”
― Maya Angelou, quote from Mom & Me & Mom



“One morning as I was leaving, the director said I didn't have to leave the set anymore. What happened? Why did they change their ways of treating me? I came to the realization that it was because I had a mother. My mother spoke highly of me, and to me. But more important, whether they met her or simply heard about her, she was there with me. She had my back, supported me. This is the role of the mother, and in that visit I really saw clearly, and for the first time, why a mother is really important. Not just because she feeds and also loves and cuddles and even mollycoddles a child, but because in an interesting and maybe an eerie and unworldly way, she stands in the gap. She stands between the unknown and the known. In Stockholm, my mother shed her protective love down around me and without knowing why people sensed that I had value.”
― Maya Angelou, quote from Mom & Me & Mom


“Independence is a heady draft, and if you drink it in your youth, it can have the same effect on the brain as young wine does. It does not matter that its taste is not always appealing. It is addictive and with each drink you want more.”
― Maya Angelou, quote from Mom & Me & Mom


“I really saw clearly, and for the first time, why a mother is really important. Not just because she feeds and also loves and cuddles and even mollycoddles a child, but because in an interesting and maybe an eerie and unworldly way, she stands in the gap. She stands between the unknown and the known.”
― Maya Angelou, quote from Mom & Me & Mom


“My mother's gifts of courage to me were both large and small. The latter are woven so subtly into the fabric of my psyche that I can hardly distinguish where she stops and I begin.”
― Maya Angelou, quote from Mom & Me & Mom


“I want you to learn that you cannot have anything without working for it. The only way you can be taken advantage of is if you think you can get something for nothing.”
― Maya Angelou, quote from Mom & Me & Mom



“This is the role of the mother. And in that visit I really saw clearly, for the first time, why a mother is really important. Not just because she feeds and also loves and also cuddles... but because in an interesting and and maybe an eerie and other worldly way, she stands in the gap. She stands between the unknown and the known.”
― Maya Angelou, quote from Mom & Me & Mom


“Don't do anything that you think is wrong. Just do what you think is right, and then be ready to back it up even with your life.”
― Maya Angelou, quote from Mom & Me & Mom


“Don't kneel please. Sometimes people put people on pedestals so they can see them more clearly and knock them off more easily”
― Maya Angelou, quote from Mom & Me & Mom


“Ignorance is a terrible thing. It causes families to lose their center and causes people to lose their control. Ignorance knows no binds. Old people, young people, middle-aged, black, white, can all be ignorant.”
― Maya Angelou, quote from Mom & Me & Mom


“Love heals. Heals and liberates. I use the word love, not meaning sentimentality, but a condition so strong that it may be that which holds the stars in their heavenly positions and that which causes the blood to flow orderly in our veins. This book has been written to examine some of the ways love heals and helps a person to climb impossible heights and rise from immeasurable depths.”
― Maya Angelou, quote from Mom & Me & Mom



“This is the role of the mother, and in that visit I really saw clearly, and for the first time, why a mother is really important. Not just because she feeds and also loves and cuddles and even mollycoddles a child, but because in an interesting and maybe an eerie and unworldly way, she stands in the gap. She stands between the unknown and the known. In Stockholm, my mother shed her protective love down around me and without knowing why people sensed that I had value.”
― Maya Angelou, quote from Mom & Me & Mom


“She had my back, supported me. This is the role of the mother, and in that visit I really saw clearly, and for the first time, why a mother is really important. Not just because she feeds and also loves and cuddles and even mollycoddles a child, but because in an interesting and maybe an eerie and unworldly way, she stands in the gap. She stands between the unknown and the known. In Stockholm, my mother shed her protective love down around me and without knowing why people sensed that I had value. I”
― Maya Angelou, quote from Mom & Me & Mom


“That day, I learned that I could be a giver simply by bringing a smile to another person. The ensuing years have taught me that a kind word or a vote of support can be a charitable gift. I can move over and make another place for another to sit. I can turn my music up if it pleases, or down if it is annoying. I may never be known as a philanthropist, but I certainly want to be known as charitable.”
― Maya Angelou, quote from Mom & Me & Mom


“She said, 'No, you learned that you have power - power and determination. I love you and I am proud of you. With those two things, you can go anywhere and everywhere.”
― Maya Angelou, quote from Mom & Me & Mom


“Parents who tell their offspring that sex is an act performed only for procreation do everyone a serious disservice.”
― Maya Angelou, quote from Mom & Me & Mom



“They may have forgotten how badly they treated you, or they may pretend that they have forgotten. But watch: They will come back to you.”
― Maya Angelou, quote from Mom & Me & Mom


“She liberated me from a society that would have had me think of myself as the lower of the low. She liberated me to life. And from that time to this time, I have taken life by the lapels and I have said, "I'm with you, kid.”
― Maya Angelou, quote from Mom & Me & Mom


“Your reputation is the most important thing you’ll never have. Not clothes, nor money, not the big cars you may drive. If your reputation is good, you can achieve anything you want in the world.”
― Maya Angelou, quote from Mom & Me & Mom


“After that exercise, the ship of my life might or might not be sailing on calm seas. The challenging days of my existence might or might not be bright and promising. From that encounter on, whether my days are stormy or sunny and if my nights are glorious or lonely, I maintain an attitude of gratitude. If pessimism insists on occupying my thoughts, I remember there is always tomorrow. Today I am blessed.”
― Maya Angelou, quote from Mom & Me & Mom


“I missed you but I knew you were in the best place for you. I would have been a terrible mother. I had no patience. Maya, when you were about two years old, you asked me for something. I was busy talking, so you hit my hand, and I slapped you off the porch without thinking. It didn’t mean I didn’t love you; it just meant I wasn’t ready to be a mother. I’m explaining to you, not apologizing. We would have all been sorry had I kept you.”
― Maya Angelou, quote from Mom & Me & Mom



“there are times when no one is right, and sometimes among family and children, no one can admit that there is no right, and that maybe at the same time there is no wrong. But in this case I was wrong and I appreciate Vivian Baxter for being big enough to accept my apology.”
― Maya Angelou, quote from Mom & Me & Mom


“Sometimes people put people on pedestals so they can see them more clearly and knock them off more easily.”
― Maya Angelou, quote from Mom & Me & Mom


“This book has been written to examine some of the ways love heals and helps a person to climb impossible heights and rise from immeasurable depths.”
― Maya Angelou, quote from Mom & Me & Mom


“Frequently, I have been asked how I got to be this way. How did I, born black in a white country, poor in a society where wealth is adored and sought after at all costs, female in an environment where only large ships and some engines are described favourably by using the female pronoun-how did I get to be Maya Angelou?”
― Maya Angelou, quote from Mom & Me & Mom


About the author

Maya Angelou
Born place: in St. Louis, Missouri, The United States
Born date April 4, 1928
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