Don’t Judge a Book by Its Cover

English Proverb – Don’t judge a book by its cover.

A new neighbour moves into number 14. Leather jacket, tattoos up both arms and a motorbike so loud it sets off the car alarms. Mrs Pritchard at number 12 twitches her curtains and tells the whole street he’s “trouble”. Three weeks later, he’s fixed her gate, walked her dog while her hip was bad and won first prize at the village show for his Victoria sponge. Mrs Pritchard has to admit it: you can’t judge a book by its cover.

People use it in two ways: as a friendly warning before you make up your mind (“Don’t judge a book by its cover”), and afterwards, when someone or something has surprised you (“Well, you can’t judge a book by its cover!”). It works for people, places and things: a scruffy café with the best bacon sandwich in town, or a quiet colleague who turns out to be a karaoke legend.

Don’t, Never or You Can’t?

You’ll hear this saying in a few different shapes. They all mean the same thing:

• Don’t judge a book by its cover. The most common form, often used as advice.
• Never judge a book by its cover. A little stronger.
• You can’t judge a book by its cover. Often said after a surprise.
• Don’t judge a book… Brits often stop halfway, because everyone knows the rest.

Watch the spelling: it’s its cover, not it’s cover. Its means “belonging to it”. It’s means “it is”. This is one of the most common mistakes on the internet, even among native speakers!

Where Does It Come From?

The idea is centuries old. In 1708, a London writer said a man shouldn’t be judged by his outside “any more than a Book by its Title-Page”. The modern wording turned up in American newspapers in the 1800s: a Boston paper used “Don’t Judge a Book by its Cover” as a headline in 1849. The novelist George Eliot played with the same idea in The Mill on the Floss (1860), and a 1946 murder mystery helped make “you can never tell a book by its cover” a household phrase.

Today it’s used all over the English-speaking world, in Britain as much as anywhere. And yes, people do say it about real books too. Some of the best stories hide behind the dullest covers.

Similar Sayings

• Appearances can be deceptive: “He looks shy, but appearances can be deceptive. He’s the life and soul of the party.”
• Looks can be deceiving: the same idea, and very common in American English.
• All that glitters is not gold: the opposite warning. Something that looks wonderful might not be.

If someone surprises everyone by doing really well, you might also call them a dark horse.

Example:

• “The hotel looked tired from the outside, but the rooms were lovely. You really can’t judge a book by its cover.”
• “Stop judging a book by its cover and give him a chance. He might surprise you.”
• “I nearly walked out of the interview because the office was so scruffy. Glad I didn’t judge the book by its cover!”
• “Are you really going to judge a book by its cover? You haven’t even spoken to her yet.”

More sayings about people and how they act: actions speak louder than words and birds of a feather flock together. Mrs Pritchard’s curtain-twitching is in our British slang list. Or browse all our collections.

Learn More

Look it upYou can’t judge a book by its cover – Cambridge DictionaryCambridge Dictionary ↗

What is a proverb?

A proverb is a short, well-known saying that gives advice or states something most people believe is true. Proverbs are often hundreds of years old, and many of them use a picture (like a book and its cover) to make the idea easy to remember.

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