{
  "schema_version": "1.1",
  "id": "maya-angelou-people-will-never-forget-how-you-made-them-feel",
  "slug": "maya-angelou-people-will-never-forget-how-you-made-them-feel",
  "url": "https://groundedkit.com/claims/maya-angelou-people-will-never-forget-how-you-made-them-feel/",
  "api_url": "https://groundedkit.com/api/claims/maya-angelou-people-will-never-forget-how-you-made-them-feel.json",
  "claim": "Maya Angelou said: \"People will forget what you said... but people will never forget how you made them feel\"",
  "commonly_cited_as": "\"People will never forget how you made them feel\" — Maya Angelou",
  "verdict": "misquoted",
  "verdict_definition": "Primary source found, but the way it is quoted changes the subject, metric, population or precision.",
  "confidence": "high",
  "rating": {
    "value": 2,
    "best": 5,
    "worst": 1
  },
  "origin": {
    "publisher": "Quote Investigator",
    "title": "They May Forget What You Said, But They Will Never Forget How You Made Them Feel (Apr. 6, 2014; updated Jan. 24, 2025)",
    "year": "1971 (earliest known)"
  },
  "quote": "In conclusion, based on current evidence QI suggests that Carl W. Buehner can be credited with this adage. Many people have used the saying without ascription in the years after 1971. The attribution to Maya Angelou is unsupported at this time.",
  "method": "Quotation research: earliest instance is in Richard Evans' Quote Book (1971), credited to Carl W. Buehner.",
  "drift": [
    "Attribution: reassigned to Angelou in a chain message by 2003"
  ],
  "interest": "Quote Investigator is an independent quotation-research site run by Garson O'Toole; no commercial interest in the quote.",
  "safe_rephrasing": "The 'never forget how you made them feel' line is often credited to Maya Angelou, but the earliest known source (1971) credits Carl W. Buehner; say 'often attributed to Maya Angelou'.",
  "sources": [
    {
      "title": "Quote Investigator — They May Forget What You Said",
      "url": "https://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/04/06/they-feel/",
      "primary": true
    }
  ],
  "kind": "stat_check",
  "as_of": "Research updated Jan. 24, 2025",
  "last_checked": "2026-10-16",
  "stale": false,
  "date_reviewed": "2026-10-16",
  "license": "CC BY 4.0",
  "license_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
}