"If you have only one smile in you give it to the people you love."

Humor

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Insight & Reflection

This reflection on humor by Maya Angelou resonates across generations. It highlights a fundamental truth about human nature: our continuous search for meaning in humor is what ultimately defines our character and our path forward.

About Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou was an American memoirist, essayist, poet, and civil rights activist. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and is credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning more than 50 years. She received dozens of awards and more than 50 honorary degrees. Angelou's series of seven autobiographies focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), tells of her life up to the age of 17 and brought her international recognition and acclaim.

More quotes by Maya Angelou  ’
Editorial Note: This quote is curated and fact-checked by the Quotes Archive Editorial Team. Verified Literature Specialist.

More by Maya Angelou

"Time is the most impartial judge; it reveals all pretenses and rewards all patience. A lesson woven into the fabric of human history."

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"The fact that the adult American Negro female emerges a formidable character is often met with amazement, distaste and even belligerance. It is seldom accepted as an inevitable outcome of the struggle won by survivors, and deserves respect if not enthusiastic acceptance."

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"It is a subtle truth that knowledge is the gathering of scattered facts; wisdom is the synthesis of lived experience — an essential principle for the reflective life."

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More about Humor

"I have an inability to enjoy things, but that's why we're in comedy. If we were happy, we wouldn't be funny, I guess."

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"One can know a man from his laugh, and if you like a man's laugh before you know anything of him, you may confidently say that he is a good man."

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