If I am not good to myself, how can I expect anyone else to be good to me?
Maya AngelouRead
Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Prejudice distorts our understanding of history, jeopardizes future possibilities, and hinders our ability to engage with the present.
Maya Angelou's quote emphasizes the detrimental impact of prejudice on human perception and relationships. It suggests that prejudice not only clouds our view of past events but also poses a danger to how we envision and interact with the future, ultimately making it difficult to appreciate and understand the present moment fully. By carrying such burdens, individuals miss out on the richness of life as it unfolds, highlighting the necessity for openness and acceptance in our interactions with others.
Themes
PrejudiceBurdenPastFuturePresentUnderstandingAcceptance
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech addressing social justice, one might use this quote to illustrate the importance of overcoming biases.
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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