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It's A Wonderful Thing To Know That There Is Something To Know There Is Something Greater Than I Am, And That Is God Itself.
-Maya Angelou
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It's A Wonderful Thing

Maya Angelou
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It's A Wonderful Thing To Know That There Is Something To Know There Is Something Greater Than I Am, And That Is God Itself.

Understanding the Quote: "it's a wonderful thing to know that there is something to know..."

This quote by Maya Angelou reflects deeply on the theme of faith in god. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Faith In God, Wonderful, Knows, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Maya Angelou interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou is celebrated for insightful thoughts on faith in god and wonderful. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Faith In God
Wonderful
Knows
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Ideas
Laughing
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People
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Home
Thinking
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Loneliness
Book
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Huts
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War
Lessons
Humans
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Forever
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Cute
Fashion
Lying
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Talking
Black
Speak
No Not Me Go Find Someone Else To Bring Down
Survival
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Ideas
Different Ideas
Different
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Giving Up
Responsibility
Thinking
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Half Empty
Negative
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Education
Goes On
Way
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Clouds
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House
Words Of Wisdom
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Benefits
Our Actions
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Mean
People
It Is A No-fail, Incontrovertible Reality: If You Get, Give. If You Learn, Teach. You Can't Do Anything With That Except Do It.
Reality
Giving
Failing
The Woman Who Truly Intends To Live A Good Life Is Already Living Phenomenally Since Intent Is Part Of The Achievement.
Good Life
Achievement
Life Is
My Heart Is So Heavy When I See The Reality Of The Indian Reservation And As An American, I Know I Am, Too, Responsible.
Heart
Reality
Responsible
If You're Serious, You Really Understand That It's Important That You Laugh As Much As Possible And Admit That You're The Funniest Person You Ever Met. You Have To Laugh. Admit That You're Funny. Otherwise, You Die In Solemnity.
Laughing
Important
Serious
My Mother Raised Me, And Then Freed Me.
Mother
Raised
What You're Supposed To Do When You Don't Like A Thing Is Change It. If You Can't Change It, Change The Way You Think About It. Don't Complain.
Inspirational
Life
Positive
We Agreed That Great Men And Women Should Be Forced To Live As Long As Possible. The Reverence They Enjoyed Was A Life Sentence, Which They Could Neither Revoke Nor Modify.
Hero
Men
Long
Money And Power Can Liberate Only If They Are Used To Do So. They Can Imprison And Inhibit More Finally Than Barred Windows And Iron Chains.
Iron
Window
Used
Everybody Born Comes From The Creator Trailing Wisps Of Glory.
Compassion
Glory
Wisps
We Must Be Warriors In The Struggle Against Ignorance
Struggle
Ignorance
Warrior
Does My Sexiness Upset You? Does It Come As A Surprise That I Dance Like I've Got Diamonds At The Meeting Of My Thighs?
Life
Dance
Upset
Number Of Things Happen After I Was 50. One, You Are Hopefully Secure In What You Want To Do - Which Means That You Don't Spend A Lot Of Time Chewing On Your Knuckles About Your Reason For Being Here.also, You're At Your Most Beautiful. No Woman Is Ever More Beautiful Than She Is At 50.
Beautiful
Mean
Numbers
I Can See In The Acorn The Oak Tree. I See The Growth, The Rebuilding, The Restoring. I See That Is The American Psyche. There Is So Much We Can Draw Understanding From. One Of The Lessons Is The Development Of Courage. Because Without Courage, You Can't Practice Any Of The Other Virtues Consistently.
Courage
Practice
Tree
I Would Ask Every Man And Every Woman Who's Had The Blessing Of Having Children, 'would You Deny Your Son Or Your Daughter The Ecstasy Of Finding Someone To Love?' To Love Someone Takes A Lot Of Courage. So How Much More Is One Challenged When The Love Is Of The Same Sex And The Laws Say, 'i Forbid You From Loving This Person'?
Daughter
Sex
Children
Cooking Certain Dishes, Like Roast Pork, Reminds Me Of My Mother.
Mother
Cooking
Pork
Living A Life Is Like Constructing A Building: If You Start Wrong, You'll End Wrong.
Life Is Like
Building
Ends
We Must Create A Climate Where People Agree That Human Beings Are More Alike Than Unalike. The Only Way To Do That Is Through Education.
Education
People
Climate
Language. I Loved It. And For A Long Time I Would Think Of Myself, Of My Whole Body, As An Ear.
Thinking
Long
Ears
Strictly Speaking, One Cannot Legislate Love, But What One Can Do Is Legislate Fairness And Justice. If Legislation Does Not Prohibit Our Living Side By Side, Sooner Or Later Your Child Will Fall On The Pavement And I'll Be The One To Pick Her Up. Or One Of My Children Will Not Be Able To Get Into The House And You'll Have To Say, "stop Here Until Your Mom Comes Here." Legislation Affords Us The Chance To See If We Might Love Each Other.
Love
Mom
Children
You Can't Be Consistently Fair, Consistently Generous, Consistently Just, Or Consistently Merciful. You Can Be Anything Erratically, But To Be That Thing Time After Time After Time, You Have To Have Courage.
Consistency
Have Courage
Merciful
I Want To Write So Well That A Person Is 30 Or 40 Pages In A Book Of Mine ... Before She Realizes She's Reading.
Book
Reading
Writing
In The 16th Century, [niccolò] Machiavelli - In An Attempt To Get Back In The Good Graces Of The Powerful - Wrote A Slim Volume Called The Prince. In That Book He Showed The Powers That Be How To Control The People. That Book Is A Statement: Separate And Rule, Divide And Conquer. That's Five Hundred Years Ago And It Still Works, Because We Allow Ourselves To Be Lead Around With Holes Through Our Noses.
Powerful
Book
Years
When The Human Race Neglects Its Weaker Members, When The Family Neglects Its Weakest One - It's The First Blow In A Suicidal Movement.
Suicidal
Blow
Race
I Thank God That I've Lived Long Enough To See What I Have Seen, And I Pray That People Will Continue To Do Better. We Are Doing Better, It May Not Seem So, But There Was A Time When People Were Lynched In The Middle Of The Street And It Was Not Against The Law. We Are Doing Better, But We Have So Much More To Do.
Inspiring
Law
Long
Poetry Is Music Written For The Human Voice.
Voice
Poetry
Humans
The Desire To Reach Hearts Is Wise
Wise
Heart
Ambition
Each Of Us Has That Right, That Possibility, To Invent Ourselves Daily. If A Person Does Not Invent Herself, She Will Be Invented. So, To Be Bodacious Enough To Invent Ourselves Is Wise.
Life
Wise
Doe
I Don't Believe An Accident Of Birth Makes People Sisters Or Brothers. It Makes Them Siblings, Gives Them Mutuality Of Parentage. Sisterhood And Brotherhood Is A Condition People Have To Work At.
Sister
Brother
Sibling
One Of The Wonderful Things About Oprah: She Teaches You To Keep On Stepping.
Wonderful
Teach
Wonderful Things
There Is A Place In You That You Must Keep Inviolate, A Place That You Must Keep Clean. A Place Where You Say To Any Intruder, "back Up, Don't You Know I'm A Child Of God.
Children
Clean
Child Of God
If Men Are God's Gift To Women, Then God Must Really Love Gag Gifts.
Men
Gags
Ifs
Love Liberates. Love - Not Sentimentality, Not Mush - But True Love Gives You Enough Courage That You Can Say To Somebody, "don't Do That, Baby." And The Person Will Know You're Not Preaching But Teaching.
Baby
Teaching
Giving
Being Thankful Helps You To Be Present.people Commit Errors Because They Are Not Present.i Would Encourage Women And Men To Be Present - You'll Avoid Falling Into Certain Pits.for Instance, If You Know That A Person Has Just Lost His Wife Or Her Husband Or Lover, It's Unlikely That You Will Say Something That Will Hurt That Person's Feelings If You're Truly Paying Attention. You'll Make A Sweeter Life For Yourself And For Those Around You If You Are Present.
Hurt
Husband
Fall
I Can Be Changed By What Happens To Me. But I Refuse To Be Reduced By It.
Inspirational
Motivational
Change
I've Had People Explain To Me What One Of My Poems Meant, And I've Been Surprised That It Means That To Them. If A Person Can Use A Poem Of Mine To Interpret Her Life Or His Life, Good. I Can't Control That. Nor Would I Want To.
Good Life
Mean
People
My Mother Said I Must Always Be Intolerant Of Ignorance But Understanding Of Illiteracy. That Some People, Unable To Go To School, Were More Educated And More Intelligent Than College Professors.
Education
Mother
School
But A Caged Bird Stands On The Grave Of Dreams.
Dream
Powerful
Bird
To Know And Not To Do Is In Fact Not To Know. We Need To Be Active Instruments Against Evil. We Need To Do.
Evil
Needs
Facts
Human Beings Are More Alike Than Unalike. Whether In Paris, Texas, Or Paris, France, We All Want To Have Good Jobs Where We Are Needed And Respected And Paid Just A Little More Than We Deserve. We Want Healthy Children, Safe Streets, To Be Loved And Have The Unmitigated Gall To Accept Love. If We Are Religious, We Want A Place To Perpetuate God. If Not, We Want A Good Lecture Every Once In A While. And Everyone Wants Someplace To Party On Saturday Nights.
Religious
Jobs
Children
When I Write, I Tend To Twist My Hair. Something For My Small Mind To Do, I Guess.
Writing
Hair
Mind
I Look At Some Of The Great Novelists, And I Think The Reason They Are Great Is That They're Telling The Truth. The Fact Is They're Using Made-up Names, Made-up People, Made-up Places, And Made-up Times, But They're Telling The Truth About The Human Being- What We Are Capable Of, What Makes Us Lose, Laugh, Weep, Fall Down, And Gnash Our Teeth And Wring Our Hands And Kill Each Other And Love Each Other.
Inspiring
Fall
Thoughtful
I Love Living. I Love That I'm Alive To Love My Age. There Are Many People Who Went To Bed Just As I Did Yesterday Evening And Didn't Wake This Morning. I Love And Feel Very Blessed That I Did. I Love, Too, That I Know A Little More Today Than I Did Yesterday, Or I Simply Know It More Profoundly.
Morning
Blessed
Yesterday
The Horizon Leans Forward, Offering You Space To Place New Steps Of Change.
Graduation
Space
Offering
Do Not Be Wedded Forever To Fear, Yoked Eternally To Brutishness.
Forever
Troubles Are A Blessing That Force You To Change, To Believe.
Believe
Blessing
Trouble
To Know And Not To Do Is In Fact Not To Know. We Need To Be Active Instruments Against Evil. We Need To Do.
Evil
Needs
Facts
Growing Up, I Decided, A Long Time Ago, I Wouldn't Accept Any Manmade Differences Between Human Beings, Differences Made At Somebody Else's Insistence Or Someone Else's Whim Or Convenience.
Growing Up
Differences
Long
When Was The Last Time Anyone Ever Told You How Important You Are?
Important
Lasts
Last Time
Be Courageous, But Not Foolhardy. Walk Proud As You Are.
Proud
Courageous
Walks
Exchange Love For Hate...thereby, Making The Present Comfortable And The Future Promising.
Peace
Hate
Inspirational Forgiveness
There's A World Of Difference Between Truth And Facts. Facts Can Obscure The Truth.
Life
Wisdom
Peace
Precious Jewel, You Glow, You Shine, Reflecting All The Good Things In The World. Just Look At Yourself.
Precious Jewels
Shining
Looks
For A Person Who Grew Up In The '30s And '40s In The Segregated South, With So Many Doors Closed Without Explanation To Me, Libraries And Books Said, 'here I Am, Read Me.' Over Time I Have Learned I Am At My Best Around Books.
Inspiring
Reading
Book
Whenever I'm Around Some Who Is Modest, I Think, 'run Like Hell And All Of Fire.' You Don't Want Modesty, You Want Humility.
Running
Humility
Thinking
Education Helps One Case Cease Being Intimidated By Strange Situations.
Education
Helping
Strange
We Must Be Warriors In The Struggle Against Ignorance
Struggle
Ignorance
Warrior
Original Thinking Migrates Each Day In Search Of Nourishment.
Thinking
Intellectual
Intelligence
I Sustain Myself With The Love Of Family.
Inspirational
Family
Cousin
A Leader Sees Greatness In Other People. He Nor She Can Be Much Of A Leader If All She Sees Is Herself.
Greatness
People
Leader
Stormy Or Sunny Days, Glorious Or Lonely Nights, I Maintain An Attitude Of Gratitude.
Lonely
Gratitude
Attitude
Troubles Are A Blessing That Force You To Change, To Believe.
Believe
Blessing
Trouble
The Sisters And Brothers That You Meet Give You The Materials Which Your Character Uses To Build Itself. It Is Said That Some People Are Born Great, Others Achieve It, Some Have It Thrust Upon Them. In Truth, The Ways In Which Your Character Is Built Have To Do With All Three Of Those. Those Around You, Those You Choose, And Those Who Choose You.
Brother
Character
People
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