If I am not good to myself, how can I expect anyone else to be good to me?
Maya AngelouRead
My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Embrace intolerance towards ignorance while being compassionate towards those who struggle with literacy.
In this quote, Maya Angelou emphasizes the importance of distinguishing between ignorance and illiteracy. She advocates for a mindset that rejects ignorance, which stems from a lack of knowledge or awareness, while promoting understanding and compassion towards individuals who are illiterate, as they may face challenges beyond their control. This reflects a broader philosophy of education and empathy toward others' circumstances.
Themes
EducationUnderstandingLiteracyIgnoranceCompassion
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about educational reform, one could use this quote to highlight the need for empathy towards learners.
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
Similar quotes
I certainly wasn't seeking any degree, the way a college confers a status symbol upon its students. My homemade education gave me, with every additional book that I read, a little bit more sensitivity to the deafness, dumbness and blindness that was afflicting the black race in America. Not long ago, an English writer telephoned me, asking questions. One was, "What's your alma mater?" I told him, "Books.
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I always try to teach by example and not force my ideas on a young musician. One of the reasons we're here is to be a part of this process of exchange.
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I read comics and I did science, and never really put them together until I accidentally found myself in the middle of one.
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The foundations of any subject may be taught to anybody at any age in some form.
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Children are remarkable for their intelligence and ardor, for their curiosity, their intolerance of shams, the clarity and ruthlessness of their vision.
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My system is to be considered a system leading up, in a general way, to education. It can be followed not only in the education of little children from three to six years of age, but can be extended to children up to ten years of age.
Maria MontessoriRead