Who really said it

People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel

Q: Did Maya Angelou say "People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel"?

No. The earliest documented form is credited to Carl W. Buehner in Richard Evans' Quote Book (1971): "They may forget what you said — but they will never forget how you made them feel." The Maya Angelou attribution doesn't surface until 2003, and no interview or book of hers has been found using these words. The now-familiar wording — which adds "people will forget what you did" — is a later, expanded paraphrase of Buehner's line.

Not Maya Angelou — traces to Carl W. Buehner Carl W. Buehner (earliest credited) 1898–1974 · Latter-day Saint leader & Salt Lake City businessman

Disputed Rights unconfirmed

The earliest documented form is credited to Carl W. Buehner in Richard Evans’ Quote Book (1971): “They may forget what you said — but they will never forget how you made them feel.” The Maya Angelou attribution doesn’t surface until 2003, and no interview or book of hers has been found using these words. The now-familiar wording — which adds “people will forget what you did” — is a later, expanded paraphrase of Buehner’s line.

Last verified 14 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

For presentations

Put it on a slide

Disputed credit — copy with the correction

“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel” Earliest documented form credited to Carl W. Buehner in Richard Evans' Quote Book (1971); the version attributed to Maya Angelou is a later, unsupported paraphrase. — Quotle.info

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

Can you use it?

We couldn’t verify where this wording comes from, so there’s no rights status to give. Safe to present as an unverified or anonymous line — just don’t assert a specific author or source.

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

In context

Evoking the world of Carl W. Buehner — Latter-day Saint leader & Salt Lake City businessman. Theme: "People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel". 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 "People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel". 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

The documented trail

Earliest source: Richard Evans’ Quote Book (1971)
Credited to: Carl W. Buehner, Latter-day Saint leader
1971 wording: “They may forget what you said — but they will never forget how you made them feel.”
Angelou attribution: First seen 2003 — unsupported

They may forget what you said — but they will never forget how you made them feel.

The form credited to Carl W. Buehner in Richard Evans’ Quote Book (1971). The popular “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did…” version is a later expansion attributed to Maya Angelou.

Quote Investigator: full investigation

How we verified this

1971: Richard Evans’ Quote Book prints “They may forget what you said — but they will never forget how you made them feel,” credited to Carl W. Buehner, per Quote Investigator.
2003: The saying first appears attributed to Maya Angelou — in an expanded form adding “people will forget what you did” — which QI judges “unsupported and inaccurate.”
Today: Wikiquote files it under Misattributed, noting it is “a very close paraphrase” of the Buehner line.

The exact popular wording — with “people will forget what you did” — is an anonymous paraphrase with no identified author or source, so no copyright status can be asserted for it. The nearest documented ancestor, the Buehner-credited line in Richard Evans’ Quote Book (1971), would itself be in copyright as a 1971 publication; nothing here is public domain.

Fact-check

How this became a “Maya Angelou” quote

It’s one of the internet’s most-shared “Maya Angelou” lines — but the paper trail points somewhere else entirely.

Maya Angelou Misattributed

The version beginning “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did…” is credited to Angelou from about 2003 onward, but Quote Investigator found no interview, speech, or book in which she uses it and calls the ascription “unsupported and inaccurate.”

Carol Buchner Garbled name

Some collections credit a “Carol Buchner,” which QI concludes is a mistranscription of Carl W. Buehner’s name.

The earliest documented form credits Carl W. Buehner in 1971; the Angelou version is a later, expanded paraphrase.

Context

Why it sticks to Angelou

Maya Angelou is one of the internet’s biggest “quote magnets”: warm, wise-sounding lines gravitate to her name because it lends instant authority. This saying about how people remember feelings fits her public voice so well that few readers pause to ask whether she ever actually said it.

The trail, though, runs through a 1971 Latter-day Saint quotation book, not through any of Angelou’s poems, memoirs, or interviews — and the wording most people share is a paraphrase that grew a whole extra clause along the way.

A line so “Angelou” that no one checked whether it was hers.

Explore

Filed under

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

Kindness Love

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.

Quote Investigator: full investigationquoteinvestigator.com

Traces the line to Carl W. Buehner (1971) and rejects the Angelou attribution.

Maya Angelou — Misattributeden.wikiquote.org

Lists this quote under Misattributed, crediting the Buehner original.

Carl W. Buehneren.wikipedia.org

Biography noting the quote is often misattributed to others including Maya Angelou.

Goodreads (Angelou attribution)goodreads.com

Example of the widely circulated popular wording credited to Angelou.

Earliest credited source

Who was Carl W. Buehner?

Carl W. Buehner

1898–1974 · Latter-day Saint leader & Salt Lake City businessman

Carl William Buehner (1898–1974) was a German-born American businessman and leader in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, serving as second counselor in the Presiding Bishopric from 1952 to 1961. A frequent speaker, he is the earliest documented figure credited with the saying “They may forget what you said — but they will never forget how you made them feel,” recorded in Richard Evans’ Quote Book in 1971. The line later drifted, in expanded form, onto Maya Angelou.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Richard Evans’ Quote Book (1971)

Richard L. Evans, comp., Richard Evans’ Quote Book (Salt Lake City: Publishers Press, 1971), attributing the saying to Carl W. Buehner; per Quote Investigator, “They May Forget What You Said, But They Will Never Forget How You Made Them Feel,” 6 April 2014.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel’?” Last verified 14 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/people-will-forget-what-you-said-people-will-forget-what