If I am not good to myself, how can I expect anyone else to be good to me?
Maya AngelouRead
When the storyteller tells the truth, she reminds us that human beings are more alike than unalike... A story is what it's like to be a human being-to be knocked down and to miraculously arise. Each one of us has arisen, awakened. We do rise.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes our shared human experiences and resilience in overcoming challenges.
Maya Angelou's quote reflects on the power of storytelling to connect us through our common struggles and triumphs. By telling the truth, storytellers highlight our shared humanity, revealing that while we may have differences, our experiences of hardship and perseverance bind us together. The act of rising after being knocked down is a universal theme that resonates with everyone, reminding us of our strength and ability to overcome adversity.
Themes
StorytellingHumanityResilienceTruthConnection
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about overcoming adversity, one could say: 'As Maya Angelou reminds us, when the storyteller tells the truth, she connects us through our shared experiences of rising after falling.'
More from Maya Angelou
All quotes →I 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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