Unique

“When People Show You Who They Are, Believe Them”

Traced to a Wellesley commencement stage in May 1997

“When People Show You Who They Are, Believe Them”

The line is everywhere and always attributed to Maya Angelou, which turns out to be right and incomplete. The earliest match Quote Investigator can find is Oprah Winfrey delivering the 1997 Wellesley commencement address, where she quotes it as something Angelou taught her — “and if you can get this, you can save yourself a lot of time.” A citation that names its own source, thirty years before the screenshots.

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