Maya Angelou's Quotes to Live By

On the anniversary eve of her 1993 inauguration poem

After Wednesday’s semi-heavy-duty post (“Should These Women Authors Be Cancelled?” — which spurred a very thoughtful and civilized discussion in the comments; one of the reasons I love Substack!) I thought it would be good to present something inspiring in today’s Literary Ladies Lite Sunday edition.

On January 20, 1993, Maya Angelou (1928 – 2014) delivered a poem at Bill Clinton’s inauguration. And since we’re on the eve of this anniversary, I thought it fitting to present some uplifting thoughts from Maya. We could all use them.

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Link here to Maya reciting “On the Pulse of the Morning” at Bill Clinton’s inauguration.

(By the way, the recitation of inauguration poems isn’t a longstanding tradition. It started with Robert Frost at JFK’s inauguration and has been included in ceremonies of Democrat presidents since. Four years ago, “The Hill We Climb” by Amanda Gorman was so lovely. Her books have since faced bans and challenges, but that’s a subject for another day. Likely there won’t be an inaugural poem tomorrow.)

In the course Maya Angelou's writing career, she published seven memoirs (starting with the classic I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, 1969), three books of essays, and several volumes of poetry. She also wrote plays and screenplays, and received dozens of awards including more than thirty honorary doctoral degrees.

This multi-talented poet, civil rights activist, and memoirist had lots of uplifting things to say, both in poetry and prose. If you need some inspiration at this gloomy time of year, hopefully you’ll find something that speaks to you here …

“My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.”