[Ads-l] Quote Origin: When People Show You Who They Are, Believe Them, the First Time

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

This saying in the subject line has been attributed to writer Maya
Angelou and entrepreneur Oprah Winfrey. I received a request to trace
this saying.

The earliest match I found occurred in a commencement address
delivered by Oprah Winfrey at Wellesley College in Massachusetts in
May 1997. Winfrey credited the expression to Maya Angelou:

[Begin excerpt]
One of the other great lessons I learned taught to me by my friend and
mentor, Maya Angelou and if you can get this, you can save yourself a
lot of time … Remember this because this will happen many times in
your life.

When people show you who they are, believe them, the first time. Not
the 29th time! That is particularly good when it comes to men
situations because when he doesn't call back the first time, when you
are mistreated the first time, when you see someone who shows you a
lack of integrity or dishonesty the first time, know that that will be
followed by many, many, many other times that will at some point in
life come back to haunt or hurt you. When people show you who they
are, believe them, the first time. Live your life from truth and you
will survive everything, everything, I believe even death.
[End excerpt]

Here is a link to the Quote Investigator article:
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2026/08/13/show-believe/

Feedback welcome
Garson O'Toole

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org