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Look Heavenward And Speak The Word Aloud. Peace. We Look At Our World And Speak The Word Aloud. Peace.
-Maya Angelou
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Look Heavenward And Speak

Maya Angelou
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Look Heavenward And Speak The Word Aloud. Peace. We Look At Our World And Speak The Word Aloud. Peace.

Understanding the Quote: "look heavenward and speak the word aloud. peace. we look at our..."

This quote by Maya Angelou reflects deeply on the theme of peace. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Peace, Our World, Looks, 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 peace and our world. 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
Peace
Our World
Looks
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Sometimes
Breasts
I Know That You That You May Encounter Many Defeats, But You Must Not Be Defeated. If You Accept That You Have Been Defeated, You Give Power To The Force That Is Trying To Defeat You.
Defeated You
Giving
Trying
At Our Best, We Are All Teachers
Teacher
It Is Imperative That Young White Men And Women Study The Black American History. It Is Imperative That Blacks And Whites Study The Asian American History.
Men
White Man
Black
Pretty Women Wonder Where My Secret Lies.
Lying
Pretty Woman
Secret
Let Choice Whisper In Your Ear And Love Murmur In Your Heart. Be Ready. Here Comes Life.
Love
Life
Heart
The Ache For Home Lives In All Of Us, The Safe Place Where We Can Go As We Are And Not Be Questioned.
Life Changing
Home
Acceptance
Love Liberates. It Doesn't Just Hold, That's Ego. Love Liberates.
Ego
You Don't Want Modesty, You Want Humility. Humility Comes From Inside Out. It Says Someone Was Here Before Me And I'm Here Because I've Been Paid For. I Have Something To Do And I Will Do That Because I'm Paying For Someone Else Who Has Yet To Come.
Humility
Want
Modesty
We Must Be Warriors In The Struggle Against Ignorance
Struggle
Ignorance
Warrior
Life Is A Gift, And I Try To Respond With Grace And Courtesy.
Life
Grace
Trying
Continue To Plant A Kiss Of Concern On The Cheek Of The Sick And The Aged And Infirm And Count That Actions As Natural And To Be Expected.
Kissing
Sick
Action
You Rose Into My Life Like A Promised Sunrise, Brightening My Days With The Light In Your Eyes. I've Never Been So Strong. Now I'm Where I Belong.
Good Morning
Strong
Eye
I Think All Poems Are Commissioned. They Just Come To Me Without Somebody Outside Commissioning Them. The Idea Comes And I Will Live With Them 'til I Get It As Close To What I Mean. I've Never Been Totally Satisfied. I've Come Close A Few Times.
Mean
Thinking
Ideas
The Most Important Thing Is To Dare.
Important
Dare
Important Things
I'm Working At Trying To Be A Christian And That's Serious Business. It's Like Trying To Be A Good Jew, A Good Muslim, A Good Buddhist, A Good Shintoist, A Good Zoroastrian, A Good Friend, A Good Lover, A Good Mother, A Good Buddy—it's Serious Business. It's Not Something Where You Think, Oh, I've Got It Done. I Did It All Day, Hotdiggety. The Truth Is, All Day Long You Try To Do It, Try To Be It, And Then In The Evening If You're Honest And Have A Little Courage You Look At Yourself And Say, Hmm. I Only Blew It Eighty-six Times. Not Bad.
Christian
Mother
Buddhist
We Will Sometimes Have Defeats In Life But You Can Have Defeats Without Being Defeated, You Could Fail Without Being A Failure. When You See Failure And Defeats As Merely Part Of The Process To Get To When.
Inspirational
Defeated You
Challenges
Once You Appreciate One Of Your Blessings, One Of Your Senses, Your Sense Of Hearing, Then You Begin To Respect The Sense Of Seeing And Touching And Tasting, You Learn To Respect All The Senses.
Philosophy
Blessing
Medicine
A Woman In Harmony With Her Spirit Is Like A River Flowing.
Rivers
Spirit
Harmony
I Think A Number Of The Leaders Are, Whether You Like It Or Not, In The Hip-hop Generation. And When They Understand Enough, They'll Do Wonders. I Count On Them.
Thinking
Numbers
Hip Hop
I Was Raped When I Was Very Young. I Told My Brother The Name Of The Person Who Had Done It. Within A Few Days The Man Was Killed. In My Child's Mind--seven And A Half Years Old--i Thought My Voice Had Killed Him. So I Stopped Talking For Five Years.
Brother
Children
Men
All My Work, My Life, Everything I Do Is About Survival, Not Just Bare, Awful, Plodding Survival, But Survival With Grace And Faith. While One May Encounter Many Defeats, One Must Not Be Defeated.
Grace
Survival
Encounters
Dr. [martin Luther] King Was A Human Being. He Had A Sense Of Humor Which Was Wonderful.
Kings
Drs
Sense Of Humor
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
As Soon As Healing Takes Place, Go Out And Heal Somebody Else.
Nature
Get Well
Healing
Depending On Who I Am Talking About Or Who's Talking Through Me - If The Person Is A Kind Of Hip-hop, Or Rhythm And Blues Person, Or If The Person Is A Kind Of Old-fashion Gothic, Meaning Gothic Attitude, Then That Will Determine What Form The Poem Will Take.
Fashion
Attitude
Who I Am
If You Have Only One Smile In You, Give It To The People You Love. Don't Be Surly At Home, Then Go Out In The Street And Start Grinning 'good Morning' At Total Strangers.
Love
Funny
Life
It's So Tedious Writing Cookbooks Or Writing The Recipes Because I've Never Been Much Of A Measurer. But To Write A Book, You Have To Measure Everything.
Book
Writing
Recipes
There Is Something More - The Spirit, Or The Soul. I Think That That Quality Encourages Our Courtesy And Care And Our Minds. And Mercy, And Identity.
Thinking
Soul
Mind
To Describe My Mother Would Be To Write About A Hurricane In Its Perfect Power. Or The Climbing, Falling Colors Of A Rainbow.
Mothers Day
Mom
Mother Daughter
Ask For What You Want And Be Prepared To Get It!
Inspirational
Positive
Happiness
Without Willing It, I Had Gone From Being Ignorant Of Being Ignorant To Being Aware Of Being Aware. And The Worst Part Of My Awareness Was That I Didn't Know What I Was Aware Of. I Knew I Knew Very Little, But I Was Certain That The Things I Had Yet To Learn Wouldn't Be Taught To Me At George Washington High School.
School
Ignorant
Gone
They Who Have Health Have Hope; And They Who Have Hope, Have Everything.
Having Hope
I Like To Know What's Happening.
Knows
Happenings
A Single Fantasy Can Transform A Million Realities.
Reality
Fantasy
Millions
If You Are Going Down A Road And Don't Like What's In Front Of You, And Look Behind You And Don't Like What You See, Get Off The Road. Create A New Path!
Positive Attitude
Looks
Path
If A Person - Any Human Being - Is Told Often Enough, "you Are Nothing. You Are Nothing. You Account For Nothing. You Count For Nothing. You Are Less Than A Human Being. I Have No Visibility Of You", The Person Finally Begins To Believe It.
Believe
Visibility
Enough
Indeed We Have Souls. And If A Person Is Religious, I Think It's Good, It Helps You A Bit. But If You're Not, At Least You Can Have The Sense That There Is A Condition Inside You Which Looks At The Stars With Amazement And Awe. That Listens To Water With A River Flowing, Or Water Falling In Rain And Is Lifted Up By That And Listens To A Wonderful Singer, Wonderful Musicians, Listens To Maybe Duke Ellington Or Frank Sinatra Or Listens To Odetta And Mary J. Blige. Yes, And Thinks Whoo! And Thinks, Yes, Hmm, All Right Now. My Soul Has Been Washed. I Feel Better, I Feel Stronger.
Religious
Stars
Rain
All Great Acheivements Require Time.
Life Is A Glorious Banquet, A Limitless And Delicious Buffet.
Buffets
Life Is
Limitless
Though We Are Many, Each Of Us Is Achingly Alone, Piercingly Alone. Only When We Confess Our Confusion Can We Remember That He Was A Gift To Us And We Did Have Him. He Came To Us From The Creator, Trailing Creativity In Abundance. Despite The Anguish, His Life Was Sheathed In Mother Love, Family Love, And Survived And Did More Than That. He Thrived With Passion And Compassion, Humor And Style. We Had Him Whether We Know Who He Was Or Did Not Know, He Was Ours And We Were His.
Mother
Passion
Creativity
Still, When It Looked Like The Sun Wasn't Going To Shine Anymore, God Put A Rainbow In The Clouds.
Clouds
Rainbow
Shining
What I Think It Really Means Is: I'm A Teacher. I Am A Teacher. I Teach All The Time, As You Do And As All Of You Do-whether We Know It Or Not, Whether We Take Responsibility For It Or Not. I Hold Nothing Back Because I Want To See That Light Go Off. I Like To See The Children Say, 'i Never Thought Of That Before.' And I Think, 'i've Got Them!'
Teacher
Children
Mean
The Most Difficult Thing In The World, It Seems To Me, Is To Realize That I Am A Child Of God; To Keep That In My Mind All The Time.
Children
Mind
World
Cooking Certain Dishes, Like Roast Pork, Reminds Me Of My Mother.
Mother
Cooking
Pork
You May Not Remember What A Person Said To You, You May Not Remember What A Person Did To You, But You Will Never Forget How A Person Made You Feel!
May
Remember
Never Forget
It's Amazing. I Can Do Anything. And Do It Well. Any Good Thing, I Can Do It. That's Why I Am Who I Am, Yes, Because God Loves Me And I'm Amazed At It. I'm Grateful For It.
Grateful
Who I Am
God Love
While I Know Myself As A Creation Of God, I Am Also Obligated To Realize And Remember That Everyone Else And Everything Else Are Also God's Creation.
Life
God
Collaboration
But A Caged Bird Stands On The Grave Of Dreams.
Dream
Powerful
Bird
I've Learned That Whenever I Decide Something With An Open Heart, I Usually Make The Right Decision.
Inspirational
Heart
Decision
Original Thinking Migrates Each Day In Search Of Nourishment.
Thinking
Intellectual
Intelligence
The Loss Of Young First Love Is So Painful That It Borders On The Ludicrous.
Loss
First Love
Love Is
One Of The Wonderful Things About Oprah: She Teaches You To Keep On Stepping.
Wonderful
Teach
Wonderful Things
One Of The Saddest Things In The World Is To See A Cynical Young Person.
Cynical
World
Young
I Have Respect For The Past, But I'm A Person Of The Moment.
Past
Moments
Persons
Here On The Pulse Of This New Day You May Have The Grace To Look Up And Out And Into Your Sister's Eyes, Into Your Brother's Face, Your Country And Say Simply Very Simply With Hope Good Morning.
Country
Morning
Brother
When Things Were Very Bad His Soul Just Crawled Behind His Heart And Curled Up And Went To Sleep
Heart
Sleep
Soul
Life Offers Us Tickets To Places Which We Have Not Knowingly Asked For.
Tickets
Offers
I Try To Live What I Consider A "poetic Existence." That Means I Take Responsibility For The Air I Breathe And The Space I Take Up. I Try To Be Immediate, To Be Totally Present For All My Work.
Appreciation
Mean
Responsibility
Live As Though Life Was Created For You.
Anyone Of Us Can Be A Rainbow In Somebody's Clouds. I Want The University Of Cincinnati To Be A Rainbow In The Clouds. The University Of Cincinnati Is Really A Possibility Of Hope; It Is A Rainbow.
Clouds
Rainbow
Want
I Speak A Number Of Languages, But None Are More Beautiful To Me Than English.
Beautiful
Numbers
Language
The Best Comfort Food Will Always Be Greens, Cornbread, And Fried Chicken.
Comfort
Chickens
Fried Food
I’m Grateful For Being Here, For Being Able To Think, For Being Able To See, For Being Able To Taste, For Appreciating Love – For Knowing That It Exists In A World So Rife With Vulgarity, With Brutality And Violence, And Yet Love Exists. I’m Grateful To Know That It Exists.
Love
Life
Positive
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