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About this quote

What does it mean?
A person's manners reflect their character, acting like a mirror that shows who they truly are.
In plain terms
Manners reveal a person's inner self.
What can you take from it?
Cultivate good manners to project integrity.

Where it applies

  • meeting new people
  • professional networking

Putting it to work

  • practice courtesy
  • listen attentively

Questions to consider

  • Do your habits match your values?
  • How do others perceive your behavior?

Another view

People can mask true character with polished manners.

More from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  1. First and last, what is demanded of genius is love of truth.

    Permalink to quote #90
  2. All intelligent thoughts have already been thought; what is necessary is only to try to think them again.

    Permalink to quote #92
  3. The greatest happiness for the thinking man is to have fathomed the fathomable, and to quietly revere the unfathomable.

    Permalink to quote #89

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