If I am not good to myself, how can I expect anyone else to be good to me?
Maya AngelouRead
There is a very fine line between loving life and being greedy for it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the delicate balance between appreciating life and becoming overly desirous of it.
Maya Angelou's quote reflects on the nuanced relationship individuals have with life. It suggests that while it is essential to cherish and enjoy life fully, there is a risk of crossing the line into greed, where the desire for more can overshadow the genuine appreciation of what one already possesses. This fine line calls for mindfulness in how we pursue our passions and desires.
Themes
LifeGreedAppreciationBalanceDesire
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can inspire an audience at a personal development workshop to reflect on their relationship with life.
More from Maya Angelou
All quotes βI find it interesting that the meanest life, the poorest existence, is attributed to God's will, but as human beings become more affluent, as their living standard and style begin to ascend the material scale, God descends the scale of responsibility at commensurate speed.
Maya AngelouRead
The white American man makes the white American woman maybe not superfluous but just a little kind of decoration. Not really important to turning around the wheels of the state. Well the black American woman has never been able to feel that way. No black American man at any time in our history in the United States has been able to feel that he didn't need that black woman right against him, shoulder to shoulder-in that cotton field, on the auction block, in the ghetto, wherever.
Maya AngelouRead
I dreamt we walked together along the shore. We made satisfying small talk and laughed. This morning I found sand in my shoe and a seashell in my pocket. Was I only dreaming?
Maya AngelouRead
I know that I'm not the easiest person to live with. The challenge I put on myself is so great that the person I live with feels himself challenged. I bring a lot to bear, and I don't know how not to.
Maya AngelouRead
I think Clinton, after getting into office and into Washington, was shocked at being bludgeoned. So he spent time trying to be all things to all people - one way guaranteed not to be successful or respected in a lion's den. You can't just play around with all those big cats - you've got to take somebody on.
Maya AngelouRead
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Mad; adj. Affected with a high degree of intellectual independence; not conforming to standards of thought, speech, and action derived by the conformants from study of themselves; at odds with the majority; in short, unusual. It is noteworthy that persons are pronounced mad by officials destitute of evidence that they themselves are sane.
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But women do not say 'We', except at some congress of feminists or similar formal demonstration; men say 'women', and women use the same word in referring to themselves.
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