people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones
Meaning: One should not criticize others for faults one has oneself.
Language: English
Literally: (Already vivid in English)
Example: “He mocked my messy desk, but people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones; have you seen his car?”
Category: Daily Life
Origin: Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde (around 1385) warns that someone with a head of glass should beware of stones. George Herbert's Jacula Prudentum (1651) has "Whose house is of glass, must not throw stones at another."
Equivalents in other languages
- French: ne s’être pas regardé — literally: not to have looked at oneself
More idioms — Daily Life
- take potshots at — To criticize someone in a casual, unfair or opportunistic way.
- go underground — To go into hiding or begin operating in secret.
- the knives are out — People are openly hostile and ready to attack someone, usually to bring them down.
- lay it on with a trowel — To flatter or exaggerate very heavily and without subtlety.
- go down fighting — To keep struggling until the very end, even when defeat is certain.
- that's all she wrote — That is the end of it; there is nothing more.
More English idioms
- not believe one's ears — To be so surprised by what one hears that it seems impossible.
- cross the Rubicon — To take an irreversible step.
- like a bear with a sore head — In a very bad, irritable mood.
- dead on one's feet — To be utterly exhausted.
- fall flat on one's face — To fail completely and embarrassingly.
- burst someone's bubble — To destroy someone's illusion or happy belief.