You Tell On Yourself

You Tell On Yourself

You tell on yourself by the friends you seek,
By the very manner in which you speak,
By the way you employ your leisure time,
By the use you make of dollar and dime.

You tell what you are by the clothes you wear,
By the spirit in which your burdens you bear,
By the kinds of things at which you laugh,
By the records you play on your phonograph.

You show what you are by the way you walk,
By the things of which you delight to talk,
By the manner in which you bear defeat,
By so simple a thing as how you eat.

By the books you choose from a well-filled shelf–
In these ways and others you tell on yourself.
So really there’s not a grain of sense
In trying to keep up a false pretense.
-unknown