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About this quote

What does it mean?
People reveal their true character by what they find funny.
In plain terms
Laughable things expose character.
What can you take from it?
Notice humor to gauge values.

Where it applies

  • team building
  • friendship assessment

Putting it to work

  • observe jokes
  • ask about funny stories

Questions to consider

  • What does your humor say about you?

Another view

Humor can be cultural, not always character‑defining.

More from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  1. Mathematicians are [like] a sort of Frenchmen; if you talk to them, they translate it into their own language, and then it is immediately something quite diffe…

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  2. None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.

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  3. Man is not born to solve the problem of the universe, but to find out what he has to do; and to restrain himself within the limits of his comprehension.

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