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Who really said it

Hate, it has caused a lot of problems in the world, but has not solved one yet

Not Maya Angelou — a line from ‘Touched by an Angel’ Touched by an Angel (the character Tess) CBS drama, 1994–2003 · line spoken by Tess (Della Reese) in 1995
Disputed In copyright

The exact wording appears in none of Maya Angelou’s books, poems, essays, or recorded interviews. Wikiquote files it under Misattributed, and the earliest documented, near-identical line is dialogue written for the angel Tess in the 1995 CBS series Touched by an Angel: “hate has caused a lot of problems in this world, but it’s never solved one yet.” The polished “Maya Angelou” form is a later, slightly reworded internet variant.

Last verified 8 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

For presentations

Put it on a slide

Disputed credit — copy with the correction

“Hate, it has caused a lot of problems in the world, but has not solved one yet” Misattributed to Maya Angelou. The earliest documented form is a line spoken by the angel Tess in the 1995 TV drama "Touched by an Angel" (episode "The Big Bang," aired Nov 25, 1995): "hate has caused a lot of problems in this world, but it's never solved one yet." No source exists in Angelou's own writing. — Quotle.info

The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Maya Angelou. Use the credit shown above instead.

Can you use it?

Still under copyright (rights held by CBS and the producers of Touched by an Angel). A short, credited quote is generally fine for talks, teaching, and internal decks; for commercial, published, or large-scale reuse, get permission.

Image direction — grounded in this quote’s real context; paste into your image tool

In context

Evoking the world of Maya Angelou — American poet, memoirist & civil-rights activist. Theme: "Hate, it has caused a lot of problems in the world, but has not solved one yet". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "Hate, it has caused a lot of problems in the world, but has not solved one yet". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

Where it really comes from

Popularly credited to
Maya Angelou
Actually from
Touched by an Angel, “The Big Bang”
First aired
25 November 1995 (CBS, season 2, episode 9)
Spoken by
the angel Tess (Della Reese)

No, hate has caused a lot of problems in this world, but it’s never solved one yet.

The earliest documented form of the line, spoken by Tess to a bank robber. The version pinned on Maya Angelou drops “this,” swaps “it’s never” for “has not,” and adds her name — but matches nothing in her own writing.

Wikiquote: Maya Angelou (Misattributed)

The paper trail

  • Wikiquote lists this line in its Misattributed section for Maya Angelou, flagging a nearly identical line from the 1995 series Touched by an Angel.
  • That line is spoken by the angel Tess in the episode “The Big Bang” (season 2, aired 25 Nov 1995): “hate has caused a lot of problems in this world, but it’s never solved one yet.”
  • The smoothed, Angelou-credited wording now circulates on aggregators such as Goodreads, yet appears in none of her books, poems, or interviews.
In copyright

The exact phrasing is not from Maya Angelou; its earliest documented form is a line of scripted dialogue in the 1995 CBS series Touched by an Angel, a work still under copyright. No public-domain source exists for this wording.

Fact-check

How Angelou got the credit

This is a textbook celebrity-magnet misattribution: a memorable line of television dialogue re-credited to a beloved author who never said it.

Maya Angelou Misattributed

The wording appears in none of Angelou’s books, poems, essays, or interviews. Wikiquote lists it in its Misattributed section and points to the 1995 TV script as the near-identical source.

The earliest documented version is dialogue for the angel Tess in the Touched by an Angel episode “The Big Bang” (1995) — not anything Maya Angelou is known to have written or said.

Context

Why it matters

The sentiment — that hatred creates problems but never fixes them — is an old moral commonplace. What is specific here is the phrasing, and that phrasing was written for television. In the second-season Touched by an Angel episode “The Big Bang” (aired 25 November 1995), Della Reese’s character Tess tells a bank robber, “hate has caused a lot of problems in this world, but it’s never solved one yet.”

Somewhere in the years of copy-paste the line lost its “this,” traded “it’s never” for “has not,” picked up Maya Angelou’s name, and hardened into a quote-card staple. It now circulates on Goodreads and countless image macros — but appears in none of Angelou’s own work.

“Hate has caused a lot of problems in this world, but it’s never solved one yet” — not Angelou, but the angel Tess.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Love Wisdom

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Wikiquote — Maya Angelou (Misattributed)en.wikiquote.org

Lists the line as misattributed and cites the Touched by an Angel source.
TVmaze — The Big Bang (1995)tvmaze.com

Episode data for the season-2 episode where Tess speaks the original line.
IMDb — Touched by an Angel: The Big Bangimdb.com

IMDb entry for the episode; its Quotes page records Tess’s line.
Goodreads — the misattributed quotegoodreads.com

Shows the smoothed wording circulating under Angelou’s name.
Wikipedia — Touched by an Angelen.wikipedia.org

Background on the CBS series and the angel character Tess.

Popularly credited to

About Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou

1928–2014 · American poet, memoirist & civil-rights activist

Maya Angelou (1928–2014) was an American poet, memoirist, and civil-rights activist, celebrated for I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and for reciting “On the Pulse of Morning” at Bill Clinton’s 1993 inauguration. Her stature as a moral voice makes her one of the internet’s most frequent magnets for uplifting lines she never wrote — this hate aphorism among them.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Earliest documented source

“The Big Bang,” Touched by an Angel, season 2, episode 9 (CBS, first aired 25 November 1995). Earliest documented form of the line, spoken by the character Tess (Della Reese); the “Maya Angelou” attribution is unsourced.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Hate, it has caused a lot of problems in the world, but has not solved one yet’?” Last verified 8 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/hate-it-has-caused-a-lot-of-problems-in-the-world-but-has

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