If I am not good to myself, how can I expect anyone else to be good to me?
Maya AngelouRead
You forgive yourself for every failure because you are trying to do the right thing. God knows that and you know it. Nobody else may know it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Forgiving oneself for failures is essential when striving to do good, even if others don't understand.
This quote by Maya Angelou emphasizes the importance of self-forgiveness in the journey of doing what one believes is right. It suggests that the process of striving for goodness comes with failures and setbacks, but acknowledging one's intentions and efforts is crucial, even if external validation is lacking. Ultimately, true understanding of one's efforts stems from within, along with an awareness that one's intentions are recognized by a higher power.
Themes
ForgivenessFailureSelf-ReflectionIntentionGrowth
In practice
Example use cases
During a motivational speech addressing self-improvement, this quote can inspire the audience to embrace their flaws.
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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Be master of your petty annoyances and conserve your energies for the big, worthwhile things. It isn't the mountain ahead that wears you out - it's the grain of sand in your shoe.
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