Quote Of The Day By Maya Angelou: 'Courage Is The Most Important Of All The...'

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The following includes mentions of sexual violence.

Maya Angelou was a prominent force throughout the arts. She won multiple Grammys for Best Spoken Word Album, acted in TV and films, and performed one of her many poems for Bill Clinton's 1993 presidential inauguration. In 2010, Angelou was honored by President Barack Obama with the Presidential Medal of Freedom just a year after Angelou was declared Glamour's Woman of the Year.

However, Angelou's life was far from easy, and she had to overcome a lot before earning these varied accolades. Born in 1928 in Arkansas, Angelou was sexually assaulted as a child. Angelou later used her talents as a writer to help with the healing process. She wrote about this violent experience in her memoir, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," eloquently revealing her motivation for writing the book within the text. After all, one of the memoir's most popular quotes is, "There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you."

Despite Angelou's feelings about the necessity of the writing, this book's been frequently banned due to its candid content. Fortunately, Angelou took this criticism in stride since she felt certain people were making hasty judgments and she never backed down about the book's worth. In order to overcome difficulties in her personal and professional life, Angelou relied on courage, and it's a value she was outspoken about on more than one occasion, as today's quote of the day illustrates.

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

According to Maya Angelou, "Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can't practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage." Angelou offered up numerous versions of this quote over the span of many decades, including a 1977 interview, a 2008 graduation speech at Cornell University, and a 2013 appearance on Oprah Winfrey's talk show.

During her conversation with Oprah, Angelou elaborated on the ways courage can be developed and increased. She likened it to lifting weights, encouraging the audience to gradually build up to doing more courageous acts over time. Angelou noted that practicing courage was also a way to build self-esteem. After that, she noted, people would be empowered to speak out about their beliefs.

After the death of the man who sexually assaulted her, Maya Angelou went years without speaking to anyone except her younger sibling. "I decided that my voice was so powerful that it could kill people, but it could not harm my brother because we loved each other so much," Angelou wrote in The Guardian in 2013. But during this time, she started exercising her voice by writing prose and poetry. 

Mrs. Flowers, a woman in her community, encouraged Angelou's love of literature, although she almost pushed the young girl too far when she asserted that Angelou could only get the full poetry experience by reading aloud. Fortunately, these persuasive efforts helped Angelou find her voice, and put her on the path to performing as a singer and poet.

Angelou noted that courage was important because it was the first step to overcoming more complex difficulties in life. Courage also played a role in getting Angelou to expand into writing memoir. When friends told an editor Angelou should write an autobiography, she wasn't interested. When the editor changed his approach and suggested that it would be too big of a challenge, Angelou suddenly had the courage to give it a go. She exceeded expectations, making "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," the ideal starting point for anyone reading her work. Angelou died in 2014, but her legacy of poignant words will ensure her immortality.

• "Hate, it has caused a lot of problems in the world, but has not solved one yet."
• "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."
• "Making a decision to write was a lot like deciding to jump into a frozen lake."
• "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."
• "If you are always trying to be normal you will never know how amazing you can be."