Maya Angelou - Quote Interpretation

I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

Ultimately if you treat people like crap, they will always feel that. You can think that saying sorry or trying to make it up will help. But in the end what they will remember most is how you hurt them and how that felt.

There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.

Speak your truth and speak it loudly! Keeping secrets that hurt, never telling people how you feel will eventually lead to you feeling unheard, hurt and uncared for in some situations. Speaking your mind is releasing and helps you heal.

Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible.

Prejudice - preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience.

The past will leak into the present if people do not understand how to treat one another. When we do not treat each other fairly and with love our children will not either and the cycle will repeat itself.

Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.

When you genuinely love someone, you will do whatever it takes to make it work, or whatever it takes to be with them. And when you are able to conquer such a conquest you will still after all the work it took to get there look forward to the rewards.

If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude.

The way that you think or feel about something is the way you are going to give it power in your life. If you don’t like something that has happened to you or something in general you have the power to change it. If you do not have that power reflect on if you can change the way you think or feel about it.

You may write me down in history with your bitter, twisted lines. You may trod me in the very dirt, but still, like dust, I'll rise.

Dust will fly everywhere when someone kicks it. When someone talks lies about you and tries to make you feel low and like a nobody. Remember that like dust you will always rise above the things that try to keep you down.

If you’re always trying to be normal you will never know how amazing you can be.

Normalcy is for people who want to be like everyone else. Sorry but everyone else is taken. Being who YOU ARE is the most authentic you can be. And once you step into your power and greatness you will realize how amazing you truly CAN be.

You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.

Sometimes things will happen out of your control, regardless of how much you may try to prevent them they will happen anyway. The only power you have then is how you react. If you let it a situation can make you feel less than, worse or nothingness. It’s your choice to heal from it or let it go.

I’ve learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision.

When you chose what, when, where, why, and how with love being the force that drives the decision and a nonjudgmental mindset you make decisions that usually align with your best interest.

You can only become truly accomplished at something you love.

If you are doing something and your heart isn’t in it. You will never truly feel the success that comes with whatever it is that you have done.

If I am not good to myself, how can I expect anyone else to be good to me?

If you treat you like you don’t matter, how do you expect someone else to treat you like you matter huh. People treat you like you allow them to. If you allow people to treat you like crap they will.

I’ve learned that even when I have pains, I don’t have to be one.

Don’t become what you feel. If you are experiencing physical pain. Don’t let it reflect and make you treat people like a pain.

Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time.

Don’t let bad experiences dealing with love make you bitter about being in love or finding love in the future. Try again and again until you find what it is you’ve been looking for.

Seek patience and passion in equal amounts. Patience alone will not build the temple. Passion alone will destroy its walls.

When you work to have something amazing in life you need to work hard towards that goal but also need to understand it will not happen overnight. Waiting for success alone will not give you success. But also working really hard and believing in what you do will not either. You must be someone who works hard and also have a reasonable time frame to make it happen.

Never make someone a priority when all you are to them is an option.

Some people will treat you like you are someone they can live with or without. Don’t treat people who treat you like you’re disposable like they are everything you need and more because equally yoked relationships and friendships aren’t one sided.

A wise woman wishes to be no one’s enemy; a wise woman refuses to be anyone’s victim.

Someone who knows what's best for them doesn't want to make enemies. For enemies act on emotion and create peril in your life. Also, someone who knows what’s best for them is not going to live with the mentality that what happens or has happened to them means they cannot move on or heal.

You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.

God will give you all the passion inspiration and innovation you need. When you allow your spirit to use that expressiveness it will show you more of itself.

If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities.

Your art is your gift to this world. When you live in your purpose you create your dream. That dream in turn helps others to see your vision. And build their own visions in life.

When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.

How someone acts towards you is an indication of how they are likely going to keep acting towards you. Don’t let bad behavior keep going on until something bad happens. Instead allow yourself to cut the connection as a sign that you deserve better regardless of what they may feel you deserve.