“The needs of a society determine its ethics.”

— Maya Angelou , book I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969); often misquoted as "The needs of society determine its ethics", and with less context than the full statement: "The needs of a society determine its ethics, and in the Black American ghettos the hero is that man who is offered only the crumbs from his country's table but by ingenuity and courage is able to take for himself a Lucullan feast." The title of Angelou's book comes from the poem "Sympathy" by Paul Laurence Dunbar.

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American author and poet 1928–2014

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“The needs of a society determine its ethics.”

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Maya Angelou 247

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