Don’t judge a book by its cover

The English idiom "don't judge a book by its cover" means "never prejudge the worth or value of something, by its outward appearance alone". We usually tend to buy books based on their covers and that is why efforts are taken by the publishers to see that the covers are attractive. The situation is not much different when it comes to judging people. In our day to day life we judge people we meet based on their appearance. While their outward appearance and the way they carry themselves does matter, it should not become the sole way to judge them. We hear many adults look at troubled kids and say “some people are just doomed to be failures”. We live in such a superficial society where even books are judged based on their covers. It is very easy to fall into the trap of looking only at the surface of people, things, and ideas without taking the time and effort to delve deeper into them. This is where the adage "Don't Judge a Book by Its Cover" comes from. Literally, you cannot tell the quality of the contents of a book just by looking at the material used to hold it together. A book with a plain cover and simple title may be more important, more entertaining, or more useful than a book bound in a flashier manner. We shouldn't form an opinion on someone or something based purely on what we see on the surface, because usually after taking a deeper look, the person or thing may not be what we expected. A suitable example to illustrate this would be a duck paddling in water. What we see on the surface is the duck moving on the water surface smoothly. What we don’t see is the effort taken by the duck to keep itself afloat – the actual paddling. So if you have been judging things looking at their outward appearance, stop doing so and take the time and effort to dig a little deeper. You never know what you might find.