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About this quote

What does it mean?
A person's true character is revealed by how they react when mocked or challenged lightly.
In plain terms
How someone handles a bad joke shows their character.
What can you take from it?
Reactions to humor reveal true character.

Where it applies

  • social conflict
  • leadership assessment
  • personal growth

Putting it to work

  • observe reactions to humor
  • manage ego responses

Questions to consider

  • What does your reaction to a joke say about you?

Another view

Some people may mask character flaws even under jest.

More from Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

  1. To receive applause for works which do not demand all our powers hinders our advance towards a perfecting of our spirit. It usually means that thereafter we st…

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  2. It is in the gift for employing all the vicissitudes of life to one's own advantage and to that of one's craft that a large part of genius consists.

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  3. He who says he hates every kind of flattery, and says it in earnest, certainly does not yet know every kind of flattery.

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