If I am not good to myself, how can I expect anyone else to be good to me?
Maya AngelouRead
My wish for you is that you continue. Continue to be who and how you are, to astonish a mean world with your acts of kindness.
Interpretation
The quote encourages individuals to remain true to themselves and to spread kindness despite the negativity in the world.
Maya Angelou's quote speaks to the importance of authenticity and the power of kindness in a world that can often be harsh and unforgiving. It encourages individuals to embrace their true selves and to continue showing acts of compassion and goodness, which can serve as a beacon of hope and positivity in a mean-spirited environment. By doing so, one can make a significant impact and inspire others to act kindly as well.
In practice
This quote can be shared during a motivational speech to inspire others to be kind.
If I am not good to myself, how can I expect anyone else to be good to me?
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
Avoidable human misery is more often caused not so much by stupidity as by ignorance, particularly our ignorance about ourselves.
In a futile attempt to erase our past, we deprive the community of our healing gift. If we conceal our wounds out of fear and shame, our inner darkness can neither be illuminated nor become a light for others.
If you simply take up the attitude of defending a mistake, there will no hope of improvement.
Nothing frustrates me more than someone who reads something of mine or anyone else's and says, angrily, 'I don't buy it.' Why are they angry? Good writing does not succeed or fail on the strength of its ability to persuade. It succeeds or fails on the strength of its ability to engage you, to make you think, to give you a glimpse into someone else's headβeven if in the end you conclude that someone else's head is not a place you'd really like to be.
When one speaks of awakening, it means de-hypnotizatio n; coming to your senses. But of course to do that, you have to go out of your mind.
If you would rise, shun luxury, for luxury lowers and degrades.
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