William Shakespeare's Day

“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.”

“This above all: to thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.”

“Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.”

“In time we hate that which we often fear.”

“We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.”

“The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.”

“All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players.”

“I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.”

“Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.”

Wednesday Writing Wisdom (13) Maya Angelou

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”

Maya Angelou
(1928 - 2014)

Curious facts about:

In 1941 Maya Angelou won a scholarship to study dance and drama at San Francisco’s Labor School, but she dropped out of the high school to become San Francisco’s first African-American female cable car conductor.

She Was a Calypso Singer and Dancer. In 1957,  Angelou recorded a calypso album, “Miss Calypso.”  Two years later, she performed in an off-Broadway review that inspired the 1957 film “Calypso Heat Wave,” where she sang her own compositions. During that time, while performing in San Francisco nightclubs as a calypso singer and dancer, she met and teamed up with dance legend Alvin Ailey to form the modern dance performing duo “Al and Rita.”The pair never hit it big, so they eventually decided to go their separate ways.

She penned Hallmark  Greeting Cards and Cookbooks In 2000, Angelou created a successful collection of products for Hallmark, including greeting cards and decorative household items. Her Random House editor disapproved of her decision to lend her words to a line of cards, bookends, and pillows, arguing the venture was too commercial. But as Angelou told USA Today, “If I’m America’s poet, or one of them, then I want to be in people’s hands … people who would never buy a book.” She also wrote cookbooks, such as “Great Food, All Day Long: Cook Splendidly, Eat Smart ” and “Hallelujah! The Welcome Table.”