Nothing can dim the light that shines from within. — Maya Angelou · Smartyfair

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Nothing can dim the light that shines from within. — Maya Angelou · Smartyfair

Nothing can dim the light that shines from within.

Maya Angelou1928–2014 · writer · 1900s-2000s USAMaya Angelou was an American poet and author best known for her memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.9 quotes

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In plain words

Nothing outside you can put out the light inside you.

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Where these words come from

How sure this is: 90% sureThese words were traced back to where they first appeared. That source is listed below.
What turned up: Letter to My Daughter (2009), p. 21 -- Wikiquote Sourced section with page number, her own memoir/essay collection.
Work: Letter to My Daughter
Occasion: 2009 · memoir/essay collection
Sources checked: en.wikiquote.orgChecked using claude-sonnet-5, 21 August 2026Sourced section, citing Letter to My Daughter (2009), p. 21

Nothing made from these words yet — Storyfaire is where they get made.

More from Maya Angelou

When someone shows you who they are, believe them.

More on individuality

To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.

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Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud.

Maya Angelou

Develop enough courage so that you can stand up for yourself and then stand up for somebody else.

Without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently.

You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.

Do not complain. Make every effort to change things you do not like.

Not all who wander are lost.

J.R.R. Tolkien

'Know thyself' was written over the portal of the antique world. Over the portal of the new world, 'Be thyself' shall be written.

We will walk on our own feet; we will work with our own hands; we will speak our own minds.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The imitator dooms himself to hopeless mediocrity.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.