Authors / Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou quotes

1928–2014 · American poet and memoirist

Angelou's memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings made her famous. Her most-quoted line about how people make you feel was published years earlier by someone else.

1 real · 1 not theirs

Really theirs

1 quotes traced to Maya Angelou's own work or a reliable witness.

Sourced

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

Source: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969)

Not theirs

1 famous lines credited to Maya Angelou that are misquoted, unsourced or belong to someone else.

Misquoted

People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

The real words: An earlier version is in Carl W. Buehner's collection Richard Evans' Quote Book (1971). Angelou later used it, but she did not originate it.