The above quotation comes to us from the gifted mind of Leo Tolstoy. If we were thereby to take this sentiment to heart so as to really understand it, we would do a much better job of not judging a book by its cover, but rather judging what needs to be judged by the facts of the case, as presented to us. Indeed, when it comes to a court of law, those who are the accused, typically like to present themselves with the most positive outward appearance in court, by dressing for the occasion in conservative clothes and being well-groomed along with projecting a pleasant demeanor, thus permitting them to present themselves as exemplars of outstanding citizens of society, even when they clearly are not.
Look, it has to be said, that many people are prone to snap judgments, and those who present themselves that are considered to be outside the norm, when it comes to the standards of beauty and behavior of the day, are considered by many to be less deserving of being looked upon as good people; whereas, those that present themselves most beautifully, are seen much more positively, as if their beauty somehow equates to goodness, which while we may desire that this be true, isn’t necessarily true.
Indeed, the greatest hustlers and con artists, are never going to be those people who look like they are the forsaken and the lost, but rather are going to be those who look the part and behave as if they are upstanding citizens, which because the image looks so enticing, makes it far easier for them to gain the trust and access to what they need to have in order to ply their nefarious trade, which is why we need to save our judgment of the other, until we take the time to know them, in a way in which the façade of their beauty is an irrelevancy, and instead, we are face to face with the content of their character.
There are many of us, who want to reduce the complexities of life into the simplest of components, which for them, makes it easier to deal with society, so that, they want to believe that surface characteristics always define the person, but it does not. So too, the reason that prejudices of all types are so persistent is because we have an inclination to group people into categories, based on nothing much more than their religious faith, their heritage, their income, and so on, without taking the time to actually getting to know the person, as they really are.
While it is true that there are many beautiful things in nature, and therefore we can accept nature as such, the same is not true when it comes to people, for there are many that wear a mask, of which, there are those times when the mask does not equate to who and what that person really is, of which, it is fair to state, those that look the most enticing to us, are the very ones that we should be most careful to give the benefit of the doubt to, because beauty has a way of distorting our perception of what is true, making us believe in what is false as if is true.